Stelis conchipetala Luer & R.Escobar 2017 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Harvard Pap. Bot. 22: 86 Luer 2017

Common Name The Shell-Shaped Petal Stelis [refers to the bivalvate shape of the large petals]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Norte de Santander department of Colombia at elevations around 2600 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath below the middle and another at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse to rounded, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a single, erect, arising through a slender spathe from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .8 to 1.6" [2 to 4 cm] long, suberect, flexible, subflexuous, distant, distichous, loose, rachis 4.8 to 6" [12 to 15 cm] long, successively 1 to 3, several flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, as long as the ovary floral bracts and carrying dull purple flowers.

"This medium-sized, caespitose species is distinguished by rather large flowers in a loose, subflexuous raceme longer than the leaf. The leaves are obtuse to nearly rounded at the tip; the sepals are subacute with a long, fine pubescence; and the large petals are semilunate and concave with a narrow margin. The lip is thick with the dorsum deflexed from the transverse bar and extending nearly the length of the lip." Luer 2017

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Harvard Pap. Bot. 22: 86 Luer 2017 Drawing fide

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