Stelis loejtnantii Luer & Endara 2004 SECTION Stelis
Drawing by © Carl Luer
LATE 
EARLY
Common Name Loejtnant's Stelis [Danish Orchid Enthusiast and Collector of species]
Flower Size .16" [4 mm]
Found in Pichincha province of Ecuador at elevations around 2700 meters as a miniature to small sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath below the middle and another at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly ovate, acute, cuneate below into the slender petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on an erect, arising through a spathe below the apex of the ramicaul, strict, 2.8 to 3.6" [7 to 9 cm] long including the .8 to 1.2" [2 to 3 cm] long peduncle, simultaneously several, many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying pale purlpe flowers.
Very similar to S lancea but differs in this species having shortly pubescent sepals and a distinctly different lip.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV Pleurothallis subgenus Acianthera A Second Century of Stelis of Ecuador Epibator Ophidion Zootrophion Luer 2004 drawings fide;
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