Stelis thoerleae Luer 2004 SECTION Humboldtia

Plant and Flowers Photos by © Lisa Thoerle

TYPE Drawing TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name or Meaning Thoerle's Stelis [American Botanist and Pluerothalidinae Enthusiast current]

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Zamora-Chinchipe province of Ecuador near the Peruvian Border as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped by 2 loose, tubualr sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, broadly elliptical, rounded apically, rounded below into the abrupt petiolate base leaf and blooms in the winter on an erect, arising from an annulus at the apex of the ramicaul, loose, 2.4 to 3.2" [6 to 8 cm] long including the .8 to 1 [2 to 2.5 cm] long peduncle, successively 3 to 4, several flowered inflorescence with tubular, oblique, shorter tha the ovary floral bracts and carrying purple, glabrous flowers.

"Distingusished by the very thick, broadly elliptical leaveds with rounded apex and abruptly peiolate from the rounded base. The raceme of several, comparatively large, purple flowers surpasses the leaf. The synsepal is deeply saccate with the central apparatus on the back wall within the cavity of the synsepal. The central apparatus is much like that of S flacca. THe erect, protuberant bar, shallowly concave anteriorly and witha low callus on the dorsum [the back surface in this case] is extremely similar." Luer 2004

CAUTION I am not convinced that the photos are truely S thoerleae, even though it was sent in by the person that the orchid is named for. Discrepancies are the flower color [minor], the inflorescence shorter than the leaves, the leaf shape is not broadly elliptical, nor is the base rounded with an abruptly petiolate base. The central apparatus appears to be correct. Please use the photos with caution!!!!! The drawing is absolutely correct.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVI Luer 2004

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVI Luer 2004 drawing fide

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