Stelis zelenkoi Luer & Hirtz 2002 SECTION Nexiopus
Photos by Alfonso Doucette Copyright © 2009, and His Flicker website
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name Zelenko's Stelis [American Orchid Enthusiast and Co-collector of species current]
Flower Size .6" [1.5 mm]
Found in Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador and Peru at elevations around 1400 to 1800 meters as a small sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped by 2 basal, tubular sheaths and another below the middle and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, erect, elliptical-oblong, subacute to obtuse, contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on an erect, arising through an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul and subtended by a spathe, subcongested, distichous, to 8" [ 20 cm] long including the 2 to 2.4" [5 to 6 cm] long peduncle, successively several, many flowered, racemose inflorescence with oblique, acute, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers that are purple and glabrous externally, and olive and minutely pubescent within.
"Closely allied to S aperta but readily distinguished by the acute lip. Characterized by the stout ramicauls about as loong as the narrrowly oblong leaves that are surpassed by the multiflowered raceme. The shape of the connate sepals is similsr to S aptera but a little larger. The petals are transversely oblong and convex on each half. Ther quadrate lip with an acute apex is more similar to the lip of S nexipous." Luer 2002
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002 drawing fide;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 photo fide;
Orchid Species Of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 photo fide;
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