Stelis flexuella Luer & R.Escobar 2016 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing of by © Carl Luer

Common Name The Little Flexuous Stelis [refers to the raceme]

Flower Size .08" [2 mm]

Found in Putumayo department of Colombia at elevations around 1800 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a loose, tubular sheath at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a single, from a node from the ramicaul within the sheath, peduncle .6 to .8" [1.5 to 2 cm], rachis to 2.8" [7 cm] long, erect, flexibloe, flexuous, successively single to 2, several flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and carrying purple flowers.

"This dainty, little species is characterized by ramicauls shorter than elliptical leaves; a flexuous, successively flowered raceme far exceeding the leaves, usually with only a single flower; purple flowers with obtuse, broadly ovate sepals; subcircular, three-veined petals; and a subquadrate, type A lip with a narrow glenion that extends from the bar both downward and backward onto the dorsum." Luer 2017

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Harvard Pap. Bot. 21: 70 Luer 2016 drawing fide

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