Stelis excentrica Reina-Rodr. & López-Mach 2020 SECTION Stelis

LCDP TYPE Photo by © Guillermo Reina-Rodríguez

AGAIN

Common Name The Excentric Stelis [refers to the unusual size of the flower and inflorescence]

Flower Size 1.04 to 1.24” [2.6 to 3.1 cm]

Found in Valle de Cauca department of Colombia in the Farallones de Cali in cloud forests at elevations of 2200 to 2800 meters as a large sized, cold growing terrestrial with erect to sub-erect, terete ramicauls enveloped by 1 to 2 appressed, 6 to 7-veined, tubular, oblique, papyraceous, broad and flattened towards the apex sheaths around the middle and base and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, lustrous, elliptical, apex acuminate, emarginate, strongly conduplicate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring and again in the fall on a single, racemose, erect, decumbent in natural position, arising from apex of the stem, peduncle 6 to 6.8” [15 to 17 cm] long, provided with two tubular, acuminate sheaths, 24” [60 cm] long overall, mostly simultaneously, many flowered inflorescence with light green, obliquely funnel-shape, just shorter than to as long as the pedicel floral bracts.

”At the present, this species is probably the largest flower of the subgenus Stelis registered. It differs from its rival Stelis gigantissima in the flower color (ocher green flowers (vs. dark purple); sepals with folded margins (vs. unfolded), sepals abaxially bright (vs. dull) and the triangular “T” shaped glenion of the lip (vs. subtrilobed).” Reina-Rodríguez, Adam P. Karremans, Francisco López-Machado & Jimena Cruz-Salcedo 2020

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* LANKESTERIANA 20(2): 151 - 159 Reina-Rodríguez, Adam P. Karremans, Francisco López-Machado & Jimena Cruz-Salcedo 2020 drawing/photo fide;

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