Stelis furfuracea F.Lehm. & Kraenzl. 1899 SECTION Stelis
Drawing by © Carl Luer
Drawing by © Oscar Duque
Collection Sheet by © Lehmann
Common Name The Scale Covered Stelis [refers to the sepals inner surface]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Cauca department of Colombia in cloud forests at elevations of 2800 to 3500 meters as a small sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a 3, fibrous tubular sheath and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical-oblong, obtuse and tridenticulate apically, narrowly canaliculate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms on 1 to 3, arising through a spathe, erect, peduncle 1.6 to 2" [4 to 5 cm] long, rachis 4.8 to 5.2" [12 to 13 cm] long, distichous but presenting the flowers all to one side, simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with cucullate, apiculate, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers yellow green, scented flowers.
Distinguished by its long slender inflorescence, its narrowly elliptical scaly sepals and its umbonate petals." O Duque 2008
"This high-altitude species is seldomly collected. From a thick, ascending rhizome, ramicauls produce a congested, distichous raceme that surpasses an elliptical leaf. The sepals are narrowly ovate with a smooth, non-scurfy surface. Throughout the substance of all three sepals, a multitude of minute, irregular particles are visible. Without good magnification, the surface appears scurfy, or furfuraceous. The distinctive petals are concave below a thickened, subacute apex: In the description, it was called “semirhombic.” The lip is concave below a broadly forked bar with the dorsum thickened centrally, and the broad apex is slightly acuminate to the acute tip. Stelis vicaria Luer & R.Escobar with similar, narrowly ovate sepals free of the minute particles, was identified as Stelis furfuracea in Systematics of the Genus Stelis (Garay, 1980). It also varies with leaves proportionately shorter and wider and the apex is obtuse to rounded, instead of acute. The peduncle is distinctly longer than the leaves, instead of being shorter.
Synonyms Stelis furfuracea F.Lehm. & Kraenzl. 1899
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 26: 447 F Lehn & Kraenzl. 1899;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 drawing fide;
Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 29 Luer & Escobar 2018 Drawing fide
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