Stelis megapetala Luer 2001 SUBGENUS Stellata SECTION Disticha purpurescens alliance Duque 2008 TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Website

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Large Petal Stelis

Flower Size .16" [4 mm]

Found in Cocle departemnt of Panama at elevations around 1000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a loose tubular sheath and another art the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, broadly elliptical, obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on an erect, distichous, subdense, 1.6 to 2.4" [4 to 6 cm] long including the .8 to 1.6" [2 to 4 cm] long peduncle, simultaneously several flowered inflorescence arising from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul with inflated, acute floral bracts.

"This species, known only from central Panama, is similar to Stelis parvula, but it differs in significant details. Stelis megapetala is characterized by a small habit with short rarnicauls; broadly elliptical leaves more than .4" [1 cm] wide; cucullate floral bracts; broadly obtuse sepals densely cellular-papillose within; proportionately large, thick, transversely elliptical petals; and a proportionately small, subquadrate lip.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , *Selbyana 22(2): 124–126, f. 18 Luer 2001 drawing fide; Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 drawing fide;

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