Stelis menippe Luer & R.Escobar 2016 SECTION Labiatae

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

LATER

Common Name The Stone Crab Stelis [Named for Menippe, a genus of crabs, with some species reminiscent of this species.]

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Antioquia department of Colombia at elevations around 1900 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing caespitose epiphyte with erect ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath below the middle and another 1 to 2 at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly linear, acute, narrowing below into the base leaf that blooms in the later spring on a single, subtended by a spathe from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle nil, rachis to 1 to 2" [2.5 to 5 cm] long, erect, congested, distichous, successively several, many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, shorter to as long as the ovary floral bracts and carrying greenish-white flowers.

"This small, caespitose species is characterized by a narrowly linear leaf and a congested, distichous, successively flowered raceme about as long, with several flowers open simultaneously. The dorsal sepal is convex and reflexed, the lateral sepals, considerably larger than the dorsal sepal, are concave, parallel and antrorse, vaguely suggesting a pair of stone-crab claws. The petals are 3-veined, and the lip is 3-lobed with the apical lone triangular and acute." Luer 2016

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Harvard Pap. Bot. 21: 206 Luer & Escobar 2016 drawing fide

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