Stelis aviceps Lindl. 1858 SUBGENUS Stelis Duque 2008 Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt

Part shadeCold Hot

Common Name The Bird Head Stelis [refers to the shape of the closed flower]

Flower Size .1" [2.5mm]

Found in Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia in low elevation cloud forests at elevations of 400 to 2800 meters as a small to medium sized, hot to cold growing epiphyte with a 3" [7.5 cm] long, stem enveloped basally by 2 to 3, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, oblong to oblong-elliptic, obtuse to subacute, coriaceous, gradually narrowing below into the distinct petiolate base leaf that blooms on a 8" [to 20 cm] long, racemose, loosely to subdensely, several to many flowered inflorescence

Synonyms Stelis connata C. Schweinf. 1858; Stelis cryptochila Garay 1956; Stelis polycarpa Schltr. 1929;

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970; Fieldiana Vol 30, The Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth 1958 as S connata & S polycarpa Fieldiana Biology, Vol 33, 1st Supple. to the Orchids of Peru Scweinfurth 1970; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 photo fdie; Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz, Compendium Duque 2008 Can't tell; Orchid Species Of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 photo fide

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