Stelis tristyla Lindl. 1838 SECTION Stelis
Photo by © The Orchidees en Nord Website
Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Three Pillared Stelis [refers to the three lobes of the column - two stigma and the rostellum]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Guyana, Aragua and Distrito Federal states of Venezuela, Antioquia, Norte de Santander and Valle de Cauca departments of Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil, at elevations of 1500 to 1700 meters as a small sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped by a loose, tubular sheath below the middle and 2 others below and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse, cuneate below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring and summer on an erect, arising through a spathe from an annulus near the apex of the ramicaul, congested, distichous, 10" [to 25 cm] long including the to 4" [to 10 cm] long peduncle, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with thin, oblique, acute, a bit shorter to as long as the ovary floral bracts and carrying purple, glabrous to microscopically pubescent flowers.
" Distinguished by its variable size, usually robuse with proportionally short, stout ramicauls and a cingested raceme of relatively large, expanded flowers and large floral bracts. The broad obtuse seplas are deeply connate to forma braod, flat flower. The dorsal sepal is 5 veined. The petals are thickly triangular and the obtuse lip is type "A". The smaller S muscifera is similar and is indecisively separate. The usually larger S triplicata is also similar but distinguished by having seven or more veins on the dorsal sepal." Luer 2009
Many references combine all three as a variable species.
Synonyms Stelis casanaensis Schltr. 1929; Stelis trianguliflora Schltr. 1929; Stelis zonata Rchb.f. 1883
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Edwards's Bot. Reg. 24(Misc.): 42 Lindley 1838
Gard. Chron., n.s., 20: 556 Rchb.f 1883 as S zonata;
Flora de Venezuela Volumen XV Parte 2 Foldats 1970 drawing good;
Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 drawing ok;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as S grossilabris not drawing fide;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as S zonata not = drawing fide;
Orquideas de Bolivia Vol 1 Vasquez & Ibisch 2000 as S casanaensis;
Orquideas de Bolivia Vol 1 Vasquez & Ibisch 2000 as S trianguliflora;
Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003 drawing ok;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 photo hmm;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz , A Compendium Duque 2008 drawing fide;
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 2009drawing fide,
* Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 151 Luer & Escobar 2018 drawing fide as S grandiflora in part;
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