Stelis microchila Schltr. 1911 SUBGENUS Stellata SECTION Chasmostelis Microchila alliance Photo by © Daniel Jimenez

Full shade Warm Summer

Common Name or Meaning The Small Lipped Stelis

Flower Size .1" [2.5 mm]

Found in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador in lower primary montane to montane rainforest to pine-oak forests at elevations of 900 to 1500 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm gowing epiphyte with an erect ramiucal enveloped by 2 tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, oblanceoalte, subacute, gradually narrowing below into the short petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on an erect, racemose, 4" [10 cm] long, congested, secund, many flowered inflorescence with obliquely funnel-shaped, acute floral bracts.

Synonyms Stelis barbata Rolfe 1913; Stelis bryophila Schltr. 1923; Stelis cinerea Schltr. 1918; Stelis costaricensis Schltr. 1918

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list, IPNI ; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 16. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as S bryophila; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 16. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as S costaricensis; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 278. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as S costaricensis; Orchids of Guatemala Correl & Ames 1952; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Die Orchideen #7 25-28 tafel 8 Rudolph Schlechter 1971 drawing hmm; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 326 Dodson 1980 drawing hmm as Stelis barbata; Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 as stelis barbata drawing/photo fide; Icones Orchidaceaerum Plate 686 Hagsater & Soto 2002 drawing fide; Orquideas de la Serrania del Baudo Misas Urreta 2006 photo as Stelis barbata drawing/photo ok;

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