Stelis kailae Solano & C.Dietz 2014 SECTION Stelis
Photo by © C. Dietz/TYPE Drawing by © R Solano and Phytotaxa 158: 258 Solano & Dietz 2014
Common Name Kaila’s Stelis [Named after Kaila Mahana Dietz Sagastume, daughter of the second author of this species]
Flower Size .14 to .2" [3.5 to 5 mm]
Found in Chiapas state of Mexico at elevations aound 700 to 1600 meters as a medium sized, warm to cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with terete, thickened toward apex, erect ramicauls almost completely covered by narrow, scarious, tubular, obtuse, carinate, mucronate sheaths, inflated toward apex and carrying a single, apical, erect to deflexed, elliptic, rounded, shortly bilobed at apex, with a minute mucro between lobules, blade slightly channeled, axially carinate, attenuate and conduplicate below into the illdefined, petiolate base base leaf that blooms in the fall on an erect, arising through a conduplicate, acute, scarious, carinate, spathe from an annulus at the base of the stem, peduncle terete, green, glabrous, 2" [5 cm] long, provided with two or three bracts similar to floral bracts, the lower one hidden within the spathaceous bract, racemose, longer than leaf, up to 9.6" [24 cm] long, tight, rachis elongate, flexuous, in two opposite rows, first opening at the base but simultaneously 60 to 76 flowered inflorescence with funnel-shape, narrow, broadly obtuse, apiculate, carinate, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying green flowers.
The combination of subsessile and elliptic leaf, foliaceous and spathaceous bract, long raceme with green, star-like flowers, and sepals with revolute margins is unique among Mexican Stelis species. Stelis magachlamys (Schlechter,1923: 108) Pupulin (2002: 74) is similar in habit, but it has a stouter peduncle, fewerflowered raceme, and different flowers. On the other hand, Stelis vespertina R.Solano & Soto Arenas (1993: 107) is similar, but it differs in its narrower leaves, well-defined petiole, and more extended flowers when they are fully opened (Solano, 1993)" Solano & Diet 2014
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Phytotaxa 158: 258 Solano & Dietz 2014 drawing fide;
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