Stelis miranda Luer & R.Escobar 2016SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name The Strange Stelis [refers to the unusual floral morphology]

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Risaralda department of Colombia at elevations around 2100 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing densely caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath below the middle and another above the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, acute to subacute, gradually narrowing below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a single, from a node at the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle 1.2 to 2" [3 to 5 cm] long, rachis to 1.6 to 3.2" [4 to 8 cm] long, erect, filamentous, weak, more or less arching, congested, secund, lax, simultaneosuly 5 to 8 flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, much shorter than the long-pedicel floral bracts and carrying non-resupinate flowers with s translucent lavender sepals, ppurple petals and a green lip.

"This unusual species is similar to three, small Bolivian species distinguished by a filamentous peduncle and rachis, and long-pedicellate flowers: Stelis antennata Garay, Stelis ballatrix Luer & R.Vásquez and Stelis saltatrix Luer & R.Vásquez. Stelis miranda differs from all of them by a smaller habit with narrowly elliptical leaves, single-veined petals abruptly contracted into filamentous tips, and a concave lip with a bifid callus." Luer 2016

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

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

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