Stelis undulata Luer & Hirtz 2002 SECTION Stelis
Photo by © Fransisco Tobar and his Ecuador Orchids Flickr Photo Website
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Undulate Stelis [refers to the inflated floral bract]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Carchi province of Ecuador at elevations around 1300 meters as a miniature sized, cool growing, densely caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a loose, loose tubular sheath and another at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on an erect, arising through an inconspicuous spathe from the base of the leaf, congested, secund, 3.2 to 3.6" [8 to 9 cm] long including the 1.6" [4 cm] long peduncle, mostly simultaneously, many flowered inflorescence with large, oblique, obtuse, dilated, undulate, much longer than the ovary floral bracts and carying purple, ciliate within the margins flowers.
"Characterized by elliptical, petiolate leaves that are surpassed by a congested, secund raceme of small purple flowers subtended by a large, dilated, undulating floral bracts that protrude from one side of the raceme. The sepals are obtuse and ciliate within the margins. The broadly rounded margins of the petals are minutely and densely long-papillose. The rounded lip is densely short-pubescent with longer hairs surrounding a central depression." Luer 2002
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV Luer 2002
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV Luer 2002 drawing fide ;
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