Stelis purpurascens A.Rich. & Galeotti 1845 SUBGENUS Stellata SECTION Disticha purpurescens alliance Duque 2008

Plant and Flowers ensitu in Nicaragua Photos courtesy of © Sune Holt

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Common Name or Meaning The Shimmering Purple Stelis

Flower Size 1/4" [8mm]

This photo determination is correct.

Found in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama Venezuela and Peru at elevations of 1000 to 1500 meters as a small to just medium sized, warm, growing epiphyte with erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 close sheaths and carrying a single apical, erect, oblong-lanceolate, coriaceous, rounded and tridentate apically leaf that blooms in the late spring through fall on a terminal, racemose, many flowered, to 8" [to 20 cm] long inflorescence with 2 small, close, acuminate bracts

Synonyms Stelis bourgeaui Schltr. 1911; Stelis carioi Schltr.1918; Stelis maxonii Schltr. 1918; Stelis purpusii Schltr. 1918

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list ,IPNI ; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Fieldiana Biology, Vol 33, 1st Supple. to the Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth 1970; Orchids of Guatemala and Belize, Ames and Correl 1985, A Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993; Las Orquideas de El Salvador Hamer Vol 2 1974; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1282 Hamer 1985 as S maxonii drawing ok; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1289 Hamer 1985 drawing ok; The Orchids of Mexico Hagsater 2006; Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz, A Compendium Duque 2008

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