Stelis platystachya Garay & Dunst. 1976 SECTION Stelis

Drawing by © Dunsterville & Garay

Common Name The Broad Peduncle Stelis

Flower Size .16" [4 mm]

Found in Tachira state of northwestern Venezuela, Norte de Santander department of Colombia and Zamora-Chinchipe province of southeastern Ecuador in open forests at elevations around 1600 to 2400 meters as a miniature sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath below the middle and 2 to 3 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, acute, cuneate below into the indistinct petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on an erect, arising through a slender spathe below the apex of the ramicaul, subcongested, distichous, slightly flexuous, to 16" [to 40 cm] long including the broadly flattened, 2.8 to 6" [7 to 15 cm] long peduncle, successively several, many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, as long as the ovary floral bracts.

"Unique in the genus with an elongated broadly flattened peduncle which becomes a slender, slighty flexuous rachis that flowers over a long period of time sometimes attaining 16" [40 cm] in length. The sepals are broadly ovate and minutely pubescent; the petals are transverse with broadly rounded margins and the type "C" lip is rounded and concave anteriorly with a similar, rounded margin." Luer 2009

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 6: 424 Dunsterville & Garay 1976 drawing fide;

Orchids of Venezuela An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide;

Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide;

Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Fernandez 2003 photo ok;

Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 drawing fide;

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecusor Part IV Luer 2009

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecusor Part IV Luer 2009 drawing fide;

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------