Stelis uncinula Luer & Hirtz 2017

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Harvard Pap. Bot. 22: 110 Luer 2017

EARLY

Common Name The "U" Bearing Stelis [Named for the similarity of the labellar callus to the letter “U]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Nariño department of Colombia at elevations around 3800 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing densely caespitose-ascending epiphyte with ascending, stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by loose, imbicating, tubular sheaths one from near the middle and another at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute , narrowing below into the ill defined petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter on a single, erect, arising through a slender spathe from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle 2 to 2.4" [5 to 6 cm] long, rachis 3.2 to 4.4" [8 to 11 cm] long, strict, erect, congested, secund, simultaneously many, many flowered inflorescence with erect, tubular, acute, as long as to just shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and carrying dull red flowers.

"This small, densely caespitose-ascending species is characterized by an ascending ramicaul clothed by loose, imbricating sheaths, and a raceme borne by a peduncle longer than the leaf. The sepals are broad and deeply connate. Stelis uncinula is one of several that are distinguished by a horseshoe-shaped callus on the lip. This callus is a modified glenion with thickened margins that descends from the bar to within the rounded apex. Other species with a similar, “U-shaped,” labellar callus are S. decipula Luer & R.Escobar and S. hippocrepica Luer & R.Escobar." Luer 2017

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Harvard Pap. Bot. 22: 110 Luer 2017 Drawing fide

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