Stelis tristyla Lindl. 1838 SECTION Stelis Photo by © The Orchidees en Nord Website

Drawing Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

Common Name The Three Pillared Stelis [refers to the three lobes of the column - two stigma and the rostellum]

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador at elevations of 1500 to 1700 meters as a small sized, cool growing epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped by a loose, tubular sheath below the middle and 2 others below and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse, cuneate below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring and summer on an erect, congested, distichous, 10" [to 25 cm] long including the to 4" [to 10 cm] long peduncle, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence arising through a spathe from an annulus near the apex of the ramicaul with thin, oblique, acute floral bracts.

Synonyms Stelis casanaensis Schltr. 1929; Stelis trianguliflora Schltr. 1929; Stelis zonata Rchb.f. 1883

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora de Venezuela Volumen XV Parte 2 Foldats 1970 drawing good; Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 drawing ok; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as S grossilabris not drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as S zonata not = drawing fide; Orquideas de Bolivia Vol 1 Vasquez & Ibisch 2000 as S casanaensis; Orquideas de Bolivia Vol 1 Vasquez & Ibisch 2000 as S trianguliflora; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003 drawing ok; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 photo hmm; Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz , A Compendium Duque 2008 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Luer 2009 drawing fide

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