Stelis liberalis Luer & J.Portilla 2004 SECTION Stelis
Photo by © M Rincon
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
LATE 
LATE
Common Name The Free Stelis [refers to the sepals not touching]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Quindio, Risaralda, Valle de Causa and Santander department of Colombia, Tungaruahua and Sucumbios provinces of Ecuador at elevations around 2700 to 3000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphtye with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a loose, tubular sheath and 2 to 3 shorter ones at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse, cuneate below into the base leaf that blooms in the late spring, late summer and fall on an erect, slender, strict, congested, subsecund, 4.8 to 6.4" [12 to 16 cm] long including the .8 to 1.2" [4 to 6 cm] long peduncle, simultaneously many flowered inflorescence arising through a slender spathe from below the apex of the ramicaul with infundibular, dilate, obtusely acuminate, as long as the ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers with greenish white sepals and a light purple central apparatus.
"Related to the S aprica complex but distinguishedc by the small habit, with a slender, many flowered raceme much longer than the leaves. The sepals are expanded, similar, elliptical, convex and free except at the base. The petals are broadly oblong and single veined. The lip is broader than long and the apex is broad with a short, obtuse apiculum." Luer 2004
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 155 Luer & Escobar 2018 drawing fide
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