Stelis singularis Luer & Hirtz 2009 SECTION Humboldtia Drawing by Carl Luer

Common Name The Singular Stelis [refers to its having only a single veined petal within the section Humboldtia]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Carchi province of Ecuador at elevations around 1800 meters as a small sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath above the middle and 1 to 2 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly ovate, acute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on 1 to 2, arising through a spathe from an annulus near the base of the leaf, erect, subcongested, distichous, to 5.6" [14 cm] long including the very short peduncle, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with oblique, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying purple, glabrous flowers.

"Characterized by a narrowly ovate leaf that is slightly longer than the ramicaul and the many flowered raceme is about as long as the leaf. The dorsal sepal is acute and the synsepal rounded at the base with the apex narrowly obtuse. The petals are thin, usually with only one distinct vein. Sometimes with 2. The lip is type "A" broader than long and shallow in depth witha round callus on the dorsum that slopes downward. A single veined petal is rare in the section Humboldtia, know previously only in S glossula." Luer 2009

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* 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;

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