Stelis thelephora Luer, Thoerle & F.Werner 2011 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer

LATE

Common Name The Nipple Bearing Stelis [refers to the to swollen tips of the lateral sepals]

Flower Size .06" [1.5 mm]

Found in Zamora-Chinchipe province of Ecuador at elevations around 1900 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with very slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a close tubular sheath at the middle and another 1 to 2 at the base and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late spring on 2 to 5, shorter than the leaves and arises through a spathe, peduncle .4" [1 cm] long rachis .08" to 1.6" [2 to 4 cm] long, congested, minutely many flowered inflorescence with longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying glabrous flowers of an unknown color.

"Characterized by very slender ramicauls and a few many-flowered racemes of very minute flowers. The sepals are fleshy and concave with the margins thickened toward the tips. The tips of the lateral sepals are mamilliform; the petals membranous and round without a visible vein; and the lip is a minute type B . The flowers rival those of Stelis modica which also has very small flowers." Luer Thoerle & F.Werner 2011

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Harvard Pap. Bot. 16: 355 Luer Thoerle & F.Werner 2011 drawing fide

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