Stelis morae Luer 1996 SECTION Stelis
Photos by © The Species Identification Task Force Website
Drawing by © Carl Luer
LATE 
EARLY
Common Name Mora's Stelis [Sra Mora de Retana Director of Lankester and co-collector of species late 1900's]
Flower Size .24" [6 mm]
Found in Alajuela province of Costa Rica without elevational data as a small sized, caespitose-pendent epiphyte with pendent, slender ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, pendent, coriaceous, narrowly linear-elliptical, acute to subacute, gradually narrowing below into the indistinct petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late winter and early spring on a pendent, arising from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, distichous, cylindrical, dense, 2 to 4" [5 to 10 cm] long including the .8" [2 cm] long peduncle, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and carrying red-purple flowers.
Appears to be related to S ciliaris but there are some basic differences. The descending ramicauls bear much longer, pendent very narrow leaves. The pedent cylindrical racemes of overlapping, purple flwoers is remeniscent of S ciliaris but the short, thick lip is quite different than the flat, obovate lip of S ciliaris." Luer 1996
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Lindleyana 11(2): 103, f. 32 Luer 1996 Drawing fide;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;
AOS Bulletin Vol 75 #4 2006 photo fide; Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 drawing fide;
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