IOSPE PHOTOS

Stelis saurota Luer & R.Escobar 2017 SECTION Humboldtia

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Harvard Pap. Bot. 22: 103 Luer 2017

LATER EARLY

Common Name The Lizard-Like Stelis [referring to the flower resembling the head of a lizard]

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Antioquia department of Colombia at elevations of 2050 meters as a miniature to small sized, cool to cold growing, densely caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a close, tubular sheath below the middle and another 1 to 2 below at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the later spring on 2 to 3, erect, arising through a slender spathe from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, 4.8 to 5.2" [12 to 14 cm] long, erect, strict, secund, congested, simultaneously many-flowered inflorescence with tubular, acute, as long as the ovary floral bracts and carrying light green, glabrous flowers.

"This large, caespitose species is characterized by slender ramicauls; acute, elliptical leaves; and two or three longer racemes of numerous, green flowers. The dorsal sepal is antrorse and connate basally to the lateral sepals; the lateral sepals are in apposition to their acute tips. The petals are three-veined. The lip is type A with an elevated, minutely sulcate bar. and with a rounded, dorsal callus. Stelis saurota is similar to sympatric Stelis lacertina Luer & R.Escobar, the other “lizard head” described herein, but differs mostly by the dorsal sepal being connate basally and not forming a retrorse, chin-like base of the lateral sepals, and a lip with an intact, elevated bar without being widely and deeply cleft." Luer 2017

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Harvard Pap. Bot. 22: 103 Luer 2017 Drawing fide

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