Stelis oblonga (Ruiz & Pav.) Willd. 1805 SECTION Stelis
Drawings by Carl Luer
Original Drawing by © Padre Pedro Ortiz Conserved at the Herbario de la Universidad Javeriana, Bogota Colombia
Common Name The Oblong Stelis [refers to the leaves]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Norte de Santander, Boyaca, Cundinamarca, Risaralda, Huila and Cauca departments of Colombia, Carchi, Sucumbios, Esmeraldas, Imbabura, Pichincha, Napo, Morona-Santiago, Loja and Zamora-Chinchipe provinces of Ecuador, Huanuco department of Peru and Bolivia in montane cloud forests at elevations around 2000 meters as a small to medium sized, cool growing epiphtye with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 basal, short sheaths and another longer, inflated sheath in the upper third and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, oblong to elliptic-oblong, obtuse, tridenticulate, narrowing below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer and fall on an erect, arising through a spathe, racemose, distichous, congested, to 4.8" [to 12 cm] long including the 2" [5 cm] long peduncle, many flowered inflorescence and has cucullate, apiculate, shorter than the ovary floral bracts with folded sides and carrying fleshy, brown, glabrous externally and with a dense white pubescence within.
"Variable vegetatively, often large with the leaves broad and elliptical-oblong. One to several racemes, as long as or llonger than the leaf, of crowded small flowers are produced simultaneously. Except for the internal pubescence that varies from short to long the floral parts are constane and usually readily identifiable. The lip is type "B" with the truncate apex abruptly acuminate-apiculate." Luer 2009
Synonyms *Humboldtia oblonga Ruiz & Pav. 1798; Stelis apiculata Schltr. 1920; Stelis dodsonii Luer 2002; Stelis fissa Lindl. 1859; Stelis floribunda Kunth 1816; Stelis insignis Ames 1922
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Syst. Veg. Fl. Peruv. Chil.: 236 Ruiz & Pavon 1798;
Nov. Gen. Sp. 1: 362 HBK 1816 as S floribunda; Fol. Orchid. 8: 5 Lindley 1859 as S fissa;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 84 Schlechter 1920, nom. illeg. as S apiculata;
Schedul. Orchid. 1: 5 Ames 1922 as S isignis;
Orchids of Peru Vol 1 Schweinfurth 1958 as S apiculata;
Orchids of Peru Vol 1 Schweinfurth 1958 as S floribunda;
Orchids of Peru Vol 1 Schweinfurth 1958;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 4 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 drawing ok;
Flora de Venezuela Volumen 15 Parte 2 Foldats 1970 drawing ok;
Fieldiana Botany Vol 33 1st Supplement to the Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth 1970;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing ok;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing ok;
Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 770 Bennett & Christenson 2001 drawing hmm;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002 as S dodsonii
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002 as S dodsonii drawing fide;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 drawing hmm;
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;
Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 158 Luer & Escobar 2018 drawing fide
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