Stelis hirsuta Garay 1979 SECTION Stelis

Drawings by Carl Luer

and

Common Name The Hirsute Stelis [refers to the pubescent sepals]

Flower Size .24" [6 mm]

Found in Cundinamarca and Cauca departments of Colombia at elevations around 2300 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, cold growing, caespitose to ascending epiphyte with erect ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath below the middle and 2 others below and at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, subacute to narrowly obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring and fall on an erect, peduncle 2.8 to 3.2" [7 to 8 cm] long, arising through a spathe from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, rachis 8 to 10.8" [20 to 27 cm] long, congested, secund, strictmostly simultaneoulsy many flowered inflorescence with oblique, obtuse, much shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying minutely pubescent flowers with purple exrernally, greenish purple within sepals, yellow green petals and lip .

"This medium-sized species is characterized by short ramicauls bearing longer, elliptical leaves; a long, strict, crowded, raceme of short-pedicellate flowers, as compared to those of the type, with minutely pubescent sepals, instead of glabrous; and petals and lip very siMilar to those of S. jamesonii Lindl. The floral bracts and the pedicels of S. jamesonii are conspicuously longer. Stelis hirsuta from the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia was first described by Garay as a variety of Stelis jamesonii, citing as differences a slender, densely multiflowered inflorescence, and flowers believed to be smaller than those of the type. Another collection from the Central Cordillera in the department of Cauca appears to be the same species, except that the flowers, instead of smaller, are about the same size, but with different colors. No mention of the lengths of the pedicels and floral bracts, nor pubescence of the sepals is made, although the illustration of the flower of the variety shows pubescent sepals.." Luer 2018

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 31 Luer & Escobar 2018 Drawing fide

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