Stelis gerontica Luer & R.Escobar 2017 <SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Harvard Pap. Bot. 22: 92 Luer 2017

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Little Old Man Stelis [referring to the appearance of the plant]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Antioquia department of Colombia at elevations around 1500 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath below the middle and another at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse to rounded, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late fall and early winter on a single, erect, arising from a node near the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle 1.6 to 2" [4 to 5 cm] long, rachis 1.6 to 2.4" [4 to 6 cm] long, strict, distichous, loosely flowered below to congested above, simultaneously several, several flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, as long as the ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers with light rose colored petals and orange colored petals and a dark yellow orange lip.

"This small, caespitose species is related to the variable and seemingly ubiquitous Stelis argentata Lindl., from which it, as well as from all other variations, differs by the small habit with ramicauls about one centimeter long, and pubescent, obtuse sepals about four millimeters long and wide. The petals and the lip do not differ significantly." Luer 2017

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Harvard Pap. Bot. 22: 92 Luer 2017 Drawing fide

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