Stelis loxensis Lindl. 1845 SECTION Stelis

Photo by © Patricia Harding

Drawing

Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name The Loja Stelis [A town in Ecuador]

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Not positive with this determination.

Found in Lojaa and Zamora-Chinchipe provinces of Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations of 2000 meters as a miniature sized, cool to cold growing, shortly ascending epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3, tubular, adpressed sheaths and carrying a single, apicall, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, snooth or rugise, purplish on the margins, obtuse to subobtuse, tridenticulate, attenuate into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on 1 to 2, arising through a spathe, erect, distichous, laxly many flowered 3.2 to 4.8" [8 to 12 cm] long, racemose inflorescence and with large, cuculate,-ovate, imbricate, translucent, red or clear with red streaks, minutely serrulate, much longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying yellow flowers .

The large, imbricate, translucent, red or clear with red streak floral bracts with small, red or green flowers easily distinguish this species.

The species Stelis brachyrachis is closely related and may be a synonym but I have not been able to review the type and see a written description of this newer taxon to see if it is valid or a synonym.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Pl. Hartw.: 149 Lindley 1845;

Fieldiana Botany Vol 33 1st Supplement to the Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth 1970;

Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 OK;

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV Luer 2009

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV Luer 2009 drawing ok to the photo fide to the drawing;