Stelis lanuginosa Luer & Dalström 2004 SECTION Stelis
Photo by © Alexander Hirtz
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
LATE 
Common Name The Wooly Stelis [refers to the sepals]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Tungurahua and Sucumbios provinces of Ecuador at elevations of 2700 to 3000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphtye with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a loose tubular sheath and 1 to 2 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly obovate, subacute, narrowly cuneate below into the indistinct petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late spring through fall on a solitary, arising through a spathe from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, erect, congested, distichous, 7.2" [to 18 cm] long,mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with narrowly oblique, acute, longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying purple flowers with the sepals darker.
"Distinguished by the caespitose habit with narrowly obovate leaves borne by shorter ramicauls concealed by loose, tubular sheaths. The raceme, longer than the leaves is congested with many small, dark purple flwoers with a long, white pubescence within. The lip is concave anteriorly with a thin margin and an acute, triangular apex." Luer 2004
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 as S languinosa photo fide;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
