Stelis acutilabia Luer & Hirtz 2002 SECTION Humboldtia

TYPE Drawing of by Carl Luer

LATE EARLY

Common Name or Meaning The Acute Lip Stelis [refers to the lip apex]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Pichincha province of Ecuador at elevations around 1900 meters as a miniature to just small sized, cool growing caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls the middle third enveloped by a tubular sheath and 1 to 2 others at the base and carrying a single, erect, coriaceous, elliptical-ovate, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on an erect, slender peduncle .8 to 1.2" [2 to 3 cm] long, arising through a spathe .48 to .6" [1.2 to 1.5 cm] long, from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, rachis 3.6 to 4" [9 to 10 cm] long, simultaneously 3 to 5 flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, twice as long as the pedicel and ovary floral bracts and carrying purple flowers.

"The species is characterized by the several flowered inflorescence with the flowers arranged in 2 opposite facing rows. The sepals are broad, the synsepal short, more than twice as broad than long when expanded. The round apices of the petals are broad and flat, The apex of the lip is concave, triangular and acute." Luer 2009

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002

Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002 Drawing fide;

Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 drawing fide

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