Stelis megantha Barb. Rodr. 1881 SECTION Stelis
Photo by Alexandre Madeiros
Photo courtesy of Patricia Harding.
Drawing by Helmut Seehawer
MID 
EARLY
Common Name The Giant Anther Stelis
Flower Size .32" [8 mm]
Found in Rio de Janiero state of Brazil in humid primitive forests at elevations of 1000 to 1500 meters as a miniature sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with a robust ramicaul carrying a single, ovate, acute, deeply keeled, emerald green leaf that blooms in the mid spring through early fall on an erect, arising through a spathe, 6" [15 cm] long, mostly simultaneously 20 to 25 flowered inflorescence with longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying fleshy, alternate, light yellow green to red brown flowers.
Cited by Kew as a synonym of S grandiflora but I have left them separate for now.
Synonyms Stelis macrochlamys Hoehne & Schltr. 1926
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Gen. Spec. Orchid. 2: 83 Barb Rodr. 1881;
Iconografia de Orchidaceae Do Brasil Hoehne 1949 as S macrochlamis drawing fide;
Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 drawing ok;
Orchids of the High Mountain Atlantic Rainforest in SE Brazil Warren & Miller 1994 drawing/photo fide;
The Organ Mountain Range Its History and its orchids Miller, Warren and Seehauer 2008 drawing fide;
Orchidees du Bresil As Orquideas da Serra do Castelo [Espirito Santo Brazil] Chiron & Bolsanello Vol 2 2013 photo fide
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