Stelis schomburgkii Fawc. & Rendle 1910 SECTION Stelis
Drawings by Carl Luer
LATER 
EARLY
Common Name Schomburgk's Stelis [German Collector in Guyana 1800's]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Guyana, Bolivar state of Venezuela, Colombia? and Ecuador? at elevations around 1800 to 3000 meters as a miniature sized, cool to cold growing, densely ascending-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, subacute, narrowing below into the indistinct petiolate base leaf that blooms in the later fall, winter and early spring on an erect, arising through a slender spathe from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, congested, distichous, 2.8 to 9.2" [7 to 23 cm] long including the .4 to 2.4" " [1 to 6 cm] long peduncle, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying yellow, glabrous or sparsely pubescent flowers.
Similar to S aprica as the species are similar florally and vegetatively but S aprica is distinguished by single veined petals and a much larger, triangular middle lobule of the lip instead of a short apiculum." Luer 2009
Certainly similar to S cryptopetala Luer & Hirtz 2007 and often cited [even by Luer] as synomonous but they differ enough to be considered separate by Kew. S cryptopetala is found in Ecuador and has wider leaves, larger flowers and the racemes are often longer. S schomburgkia is found in Guyana [the type] and in Venezuela.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*J. Bot. 48: 108 Fawc & Rendl. 1910
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 4 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 as S aprica drawing fide;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide;
Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV Luer 2009 S cryptopetala as a synonym
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV Luer 2009 drawing fide ;
Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 170 Luer & Escobar 2018 drawing fide;
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