Stelis flexa Schltr. 1929 SECTION Stelis
Drawing by © Carl Luer and Selbyana 32(1,2): 46 Luer & Vasquez 2018
LATE 
Common Name The Flexuous Stelis [referring to the rhizome or the roots?]
Flower Size .16" [4 mm]
Found in La Paz department of Bolivia at elevations around 1400 to 2600 meters as a miniature to small sized, cool to cold growing, scending-caespitose to long-repent epiphyte with a slender, creeping, flexuous, branching rhizome giving rise to erect to suberect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath below the middle and 1 to 2 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, acute, narrowing below into the ill-defined petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late spring and summer on an erect, arising througha spathe from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle 1.2 to 2.4" [3 to 6 cm] long, rachis 3.6 to 5.6" [9 to 14 cm] long, erect, congested, distichous, simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, just shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying cream colored with a faint maroon flush [Duque] or yellow [Luer flowers.
"The degree of flection of the slender, repent rhizome depends upon the immediate growing conditions. In a loose, mossy substrate, the rhizome is elongated and flexuous, but in a nearby, compact substrate, the rhizome is short, causing the plant to appear caespitose. An elongated, congested, many-flowered raceme of tiny flowers far surpasses a narrowly elliptical leaf. The sepals are minutely pubescent and obtuse, the petals are three-veined, and the lip is type A. The habit of Stelis setacea Lindl. is similar, but the inflorescence is less than half the length of the leaf, and the sepals are glabrous." Luer & Vasquez 2018
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 27: 41 Schlechter 1929;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 drawing fide;
Selbyana 32(1,2): 46 Luer & Vasquez 2018
Selbyana 32(1,2): 138 Luer & Vasquez 2018 Drawing fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------