Stelis pusilla Kunth 1816
SECTION Stelis
Photo by Chuck NH and The Orchids FOrum Website
Drawings by Carl Luer
Photo by Ecuagenera and their Ecuador Orchid Website
EARLY
Common Name The Small Flowered Stelis
Flower Size .06" [1.5 mm]
Found in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the lesser Antilles, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil in very wet, montane cloud forests at elevations of 1200 to 3400 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose to ascending epiphyte with fasciculate, erect, slender ramicauls and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly lanceolate, obtuse, gradually narrowing into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter and early spring on an erect to suberect, arising from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .16 to 1.6" [.4 to 4 cm] long , rachis .6 to 2.4" [1.5 to 6 cm] long, motly simultaneously few to manty flowerwed inflorescence with infundibular shorter to just a bit longer than the ovary floral bract and carrying white, yellow, green, rose, light brown and rarely purple, glabrous to microscopically pubescent flowers.
This species is similar to S sarae but it is distinguished by a larger and more robust habit with a thicker rhizome and larger flowers with a smilar lip that is widest below the middle rather than above the middle in S pusila.
Synonyms Apatostelis minuta (C.Schweinf.) Garay 1979; Stelis alba Kunth 1816; Stelis apiculata Lindl. 1859; Stelis callicentrum Schltr. 1917; Stelis chabreana Mansf. 1926; Stelis citrina Schltr. 1920; Stelis dazae Garay 1979 publ. 1980; Stelis elegantula Schltr. 1924; Stelis graminea Lindl 1859; Stelis herbiola Lindl 1859; Stelis lloensis Schltr. 1921; Stelis megahybos Schltr. 1915; Stelis microphylla Lindl. 1859; Stelis minuta C.Schweinf. 1942; Stelis myriantha Lindl. 1859; Stelis polyclada Lindl. 1859; Stelis scandens Schltr 1924 nom. illeg.; Stelis tenuis Schltr. 1920
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Nov. Gen. Sp. 1: 361 H B K 1816;
Fol. Orchid. 8: 11 Lindley 1859 as S apiculata;
Fol. Orchid. 8: 11 Lindley 1859 as S graminea; Fol. Orchid. 8: 10 Lindley 1859 as S herbiola;
Fol. Orchid. 8: 10 Lindley 1859 as S microphylla; Fol. Orchid. 8: 10 Lindley 1859 as S myriantha;
Fol. Orchid. 8: 10 Lindley 1859 as S polyclada;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 14: 122 Schlechter 1915 as S megahybos;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 15: 52 Schlechter 1917 as S callicentrum;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 86 Schlechter 1920 as S citrina;
Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten II Colombia Schlechter 1920 as S myriantha;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 7: 94 Schlecheter 1920 as S tenuis;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 8: 53 Schlechter 1921 as S lloensis;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 27: 39 Schlechter 1924 nom. illeg. as S scandens;
Beitrage Zur Orchideenkunde Von Colombia 27:28 Schlechter 1924 as S elegantula;
Ark. Bot. 20A(15): 15 Mansf. 1926 as S chabreana;
Bot. Mus. Leafl. 10: 120 C Schweinf. 1942 as S minuta;
Iconografia de Orchidaceae Do Brasil Hoehne 1949 as S microphylla drawing ok;
Orchids of Peru Vol 1 Schweinfurth 1958 as S alba;
Orchids of Peru Vol 1 Schweinfurth 1958 as S minuta;
Orchids of Peru Vol 1 Schweinfurth 1958 as S minuta drawing fide;
Flora de Venezuela Volumen 15 Parte 2 Foldats 1970 drawing ok;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 6 Dunsterville & Garay 1976 drawing ok;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as S alba drawing fide;
Bot. Mus. Leafl. 27: 189 Garay 1979 as Apotostelis minuta;
Bot. Mus. Leafl. 27: 202 Garay 1979 publ. 1980 as S dazae;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing good;
Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000 as S chabreana;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing good;
Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003;
Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Fernandez 2003 as S alba photo ok;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz, A Compendium Duque 2008 as S chabreana drawing;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz, A Compendium Duque 2008 as S megahybos;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz, A Compendium Duque 2008 as S microphylla drawing ok;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz, A Compendium Duque 2008 as S mimuta drawing ok;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz, A Compendium Duque 2008 drawing ok;
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;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV Luer 2009 as S alba excluded species;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV Luer 2009 as S lloensis excluded species;
Harvard Papers in Botany, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 173 to 196 2013 MISCELLANEOUS NEW SPECIES IN THE PLEUROTHALLIDINAE (ORCHIDACEAE) Carlyle A. Luer & Lisa Thoerle Orchid Digest Vol 80 #2 2016;
Selbyana 32(1,2): 92 Luer & Vasquez 2018
Selbyana 32(1,2): 153 Luer & Vasquez 2018 Drawing fide;
Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 19 Luer & Escobar 2018 as S albaDrawing fide; Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 31 Luer & Escobar 2018 as S graminea Drawing fide
Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 34 Luer & Escobar 2018 as S microphylla Drawing fide
Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 40 Luer & Escobar 2018 as S polyclada Drawing fide
Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 168 Luer & Escobar 2018 drawing fide;
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