Stelis glumacea Lindl. 1859 SECTION Stelis

Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name The Glumaceous Stelis [an allusion to the conspicuous, floral bracts

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Pichincha and Imbabura provinces of Ecuador at elevations around 1400 to 2100 meters as a miniature sized, cool to cold growing, densely caespitose to shortly repent epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a loose tubular sheath above the middle and 2 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical-ovate, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on an erect, arising through a spathe from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, distichous, congested, 6.4 to 8" [16 to 20 cm] long including the 2 to 3.2" [5 to 8 cm] long the peduncle, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, much longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying purple brown and brown, sensitive flowers.

"Similar to S lindenii but the large, protruding floral bracts compared to a "Spike of Wheat" by Lindley separate them. The sepals are fleshy, broadly ovate and often close when disturbed." Luer 2009

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Fol. Orchid. 8: 3 Lindley 1859

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV 2009

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV 2009 drawing fide

Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 29 Luer & Escobar 2018 Drawing fide

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