Stelis tunariensis Luer & R.Vásquez 2018 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Selbyana 32(1,2): 120 Luer & Vasquez 2018

EARLY

Common Name The Tunari Stelis [Named for Villa Tunari, the community near the area where the species was collected]

Flower Size .24" [6 mm]

Found in Cochabamba department of Bolivia at elevations around 700 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect slender, ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath from below the middle and another at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the early summer on an erect, without an obvious spathe from a node at the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .8" [2 cm] long, rachis .4 to 1.2" [1 to 3 cm] long, erect, loose, flexuous, successively single, more or less 10 to 12 flowered inflorescence with oblique, close, acute, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers with rose brown sepals, purple petals and a purple lip.

"This small, caespitose species from low-land forest north of Cochabamba in the vicinity of Villa Tunari is related to Stelis carnosipetala Luer & R.Vásquez. Stelis tunariënsis Luer & R.Vásquez is a smaller plant with more, smaller flowers with rose-brown, minutely pubescent, sepals. Although also thick, the petals are concave, not solidly convex." Luer & Vasquez 2018

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Selbyana 32(1,2): 120 Luer & Vasquez 2018

Selbyana 32(1,2): 163 Luer & Vasquez 2018 Drawing fide;

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------