Stelis nutans Lindl. 1859 SECTION Humboldtia
Drawings by © Carl Luer/Dodson
Common Name or Meaning The Noding Stelis [refers to the flowers position]
Flower Size 1/5" [5 mm]
Found in Ecuador and La Paz department of Bolivia in cloud forests or wet scrubby dwarf forests at elevations of 1180 to 3000 meters as a miniature to small sized, cool to cold growing, ascending-caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a cloose tubular sheath near the middle and 2 to 3 sheaths at the base and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, elliptic, acute, petiolate base leaf that blooms at most any time of the year on 1 to 3, erect, congested, distichous, 3.2 to 6.8" [8 to 17 cm] long including the .4 to 1" [1 to 2.5 cm] long peduncle, simultaneously many flowered inflorescence arising through a spathe, from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul with, thin, oblique, as longas to shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers with yellow-green sepals, light green petals and a light green lip.
"This species of section Humboldtia is frequent and widely distributed in Ecuador. It must certainly also occur in Peru, but Schweinfurth (1958, 1970) did not record it. One collection from Bolivia appears to represent this species. It is characterized by an ascending-caespitose habit with long, slender ramicauls, and an elliptical, long-petiolate leaf. The slender, densely flowered raceme surpasses the leaf. The sepals are obtuse with the laterals connate into a concave synsepal; the petals are thick with thickened margins; and the type A lip is obtuse with the dorsum callous in varying degrees. In the Bolivian collection, the dorsal callus of the lip is single and rounded." Luer 2018
Synonyms Stelis manabina Dodson & Garay 1980
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Fol. Orchid. 8: 15 Lindley 1859;
Icones Plantarum Tropicarum plate 327 Dodson 1980 as S manabina Drawing good;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz A COmpendium Duque 2008 drawing good;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV Luer 2009
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV Luer 2009 drawing fide;
Selbyana 32(1,2): 75 Luer & Vasquez 2018;
Selbyana 32(1,2): 148 Luer & Vasquez 2018 Drawing fide;
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