Stelis ortegae Luer & Hirtz 2002 SECTION Stelis

TYPE drawing by Carl Luer

Common Name Ortega's Stelis [Ecuadorian Co-collector of the type current]

Flower Size .28" [7 mm]

Found in Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador at elevations around 950 to 1650 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 2 tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse, narrowly cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on an erect, peduncle .8" [2 cm] long, from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, rachis .4 to .8" [1 to 2 cm] long, subcongested, slightly flexuous, distichous, successively 1 to few, several flowered inflorescence with obique, acute, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying large, flat flowers with red-purple, glabrous externally, glandular-cellular within, expanded sepals, red-purple, transversely obovate, fleshy, shallowly concave petals and a thick, red-purple transversely oblong-ovoid lip.

"The species is distinguished by the short ramicauls with proportionally large, broad leaves and a few flowered raceme of proportionally large, flat flowers. The sepals are broadly obtuse, the petals are thick and the lip is obtuse with a callous on the dorsum." Luer 2002

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002 drawing fide;

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