Stelis patinaria Luer & Hirtz 2002 SECTION Humboldtia
photo by © The Ecuagenera Website
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Plate Stelis [refers to the shallow synsepal]
Flower Size .12" [3 mm]
Found in Morona-Santiago, Napo, Zamora-Chinchipe provinces of Ecuador at elevations around 1800 to 2500 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath on the middle third and 2 to 3 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse, cuneate or contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on an erect, subcongested, distichous, 6 to 7.2" [15 to 18 cm] long including the 1.2 to 2" [3 to 5 cm] long peduncle, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence arising through a spathe from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul with oblique, acute, much longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying purple, nonresupinate, bilabiate flowers.
Distinguished by the flat, gaping flowers with a transverse, shallowly concave synsepal that gives the appearance similar to SECTION Stelis. Vegetatively the species is variable with broad, petiolate leaves of various shapes and sizes. The ramicauls bear a tubular sheath on or above the middle third. The floral bracts are elongate and narrowly acute. The dorsal sepal is five veined, but inconstant accessory veins sometimes increase the number to nine. The ends of the semilunate petals meet above the column and below the lip. The lip is transverse and broadly rounded with three calli 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 2002drawing fide;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 photo good;
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