Stelis caesariata Luer & Hirtz 2012 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Long Haired Stelis [refers to the pubescence of the sepals]

Flower Size .08" [2 mm] wide

Found in Pinchincha province of Ecuador at elevations around 800 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm growing, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by 2 thin, tighly fitting sheaths and carrying a single, erect, thickly coriaceous, elliptical, subacute, narrowly cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on an erect, arising from below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle filiform, .2 to .4" [5 to 10 mm] long , 1.2" [3 cm] long overall, slightly flexuous, successively 1 to 2, few flowered inflorescence with longer than the pedicel and ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers with rose, finely villous pubescent sepals, red purple, glabrous petals and a red-purple glabrous lip.

"This species is superficially similar to Stelis capitata Luer & Hirtz, but differs in the slightly larger flowers with thick, subcircular petals and a minute lip with a proportionately large, shallow glenion." Luer 2012

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Harvard Papers in Botany, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 333 to 368 MISCELLANEOUS NEW SPECIES IN THE PLEUROTHALLIDINAE (ORCHIDACEAE) Carlyle A. Luer 2012 drawing fide

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