Stelis laudabilis Luer & Hirtz 2007 SECTION Nexipous
Drawing by © Carl Luer
EARLY
Common Name The Praiseworthy Stelis
Flower Size .08" [2 mm]
Found in Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador at elevations around 1400 to 1600 meters as a miniature sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphtye with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a loose, tubular sheath on the middle third and 2 to 3 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, oblong, obtuse, cuneate below into the base leaf that blooms in the early winter on 1 to 2, arising through a slender spathe from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, suberect, more or less arching, congested, 2.8 to 3.2" [7 to 8 cm] long including the .2" [5 mm] long peduncle, more or less mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with tubular, oblique, subacute, just shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying flwoers with green sepals and petals and a purple black lip.
Similar to S juninensis but distinguished by the protuberance formed by the bases of the acute sepals, the petals are thick with an irregular surface and a depression to accomodate the spreading stigmatic lobes from the column and the oblong, obtuse lip is pubescent on the dorsum." Luer 2007
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIX A Third Century of Stelis of Ecuador Systmatics of Apoda-Prorepentia Luer 2007 drawing fide;
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