Stelis skutchii Ames 1938 SECTION Stelis

Drawing by © L.O.Williams

Common Name Skutch's Stelis [American Botanist in Panama 1900's]

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Heridia province of Costa Rica and Chiriqui province of Panama in montane forests at elevations of 1200 to 1750 meters as a small to just medium sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender stems enveloped by scarious sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, ellipotic, obtuse to acutish, gradually narrowing below into the elongate, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer and fall on an erect, to 8.8" [22 cm] long, exceeding the leaf, many flowered inflorescence with infundibuliform, acute, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying dark purple flowers.

Closely allied to S standleyi but differs in the dissimilar proportioned sepals and lip. It is noteworthy that the dorsal sepal of S skutchii is strikingly unlike the lateral sepals, being oblong-lanceolate rather than ovate-lanceolate." Ames 1938

Synonyms Apatostelis skutchii (Ames) Garay 1979

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Bot. Mus. Leafl. 6: 17 Ames 1938;

Bot. Mus. Leafl. 6: 17 Ames 1938 Drawing fide

The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946

The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 drawing fide;

Bot. Mus. Leafl. 27: 190 Garay 1979 as Apotostelis skutchii;

Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;

Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz Compendium Duque 2008 drawing fide;

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