Stelis moleculaa Luer & R.Escobar 2016 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

LATER

Common Name The Very Tiny Stelis

Flower Size .08" [2 mm]

Found in Norte de Santander department of Colombia at elevations around 2600 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 2 close, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, narrowing below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the later spring on a single, arising from the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .04 to .06" [1 to 1.5 mm] long, rachis 1.2 to 1.6" [3 to 4 cm] long, erect, subflexuous, successively several, many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying purple flowers.

"This very small, caespitose species is characterized by elliptical leaves and a twice longer, subflexuous raceme of tiny, purple flowers. The sepals are one millimeter long and wide; the petals are thin and single-veined; and the lip has a rounded callus surrounded by a moatlike cavity. The stigmatic lobes are within the margins of the clinandrium." Luer 2016

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Harvard Pap. Bot. 21: 208 Luer & Escobar 2016 drawing fide

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