Stelis tropex Luer & Endara 2007 SECTION Stelis Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Oar-Shaped Stelis [refers to the leaf shape]
Flower Size .08" [2 mm]
Found in Loja province of Ecuador at elevations around 1250 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, shortyl repent epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped by 2 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, obovate, obtuse to round, long acuminate below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on an erect, arising through a spathe from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, congested, distichous, 2.4 to 3.6" [6 to 9 cm] long including the to 1.2 to 1.6" [3 to 4 cm] long peduncle, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with infundibular, obtuse, just shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying yellow green , glabrous externally, ramentaceous within flowers.
"Racemes of tiny flowers surpass the most distinctive leaves that are obovate with rounded tips and long acuminate bases. The broadly ovate sepals only .04" [1mm] long and wide, are smooth outside and chaffy inside. The petals are sngle veined and the minute roundd lip is concave anteriorly with a minute, subapiculate margin." Luer 2007
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIX A Third Century of Stelis of Ecuador Systematics of Apoda-Prorepentia Luer 2007 drawing fide
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