Stelis cupreata Luer & R.Escobar 2017 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name The Coppery Stelis [refers to the bronze glow of the yellow flowers]

Flower Size .24" [6 mm]

Found in Boyaca department of Colombia at elevations around 3000 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing, densely caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath below the middle and 1 to 2 others below and at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, oblong, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter on a single, arising through a spathe from a node at the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle 3.2" [8 cm], rachis to 6.8 to 8" [17 to 20 cm] long, erect, congested, secund, mostly simultaneously, many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying yellow flowers with a coppery suffusion.

"This caespitose species is characterized by a long, secund raceme of yellow flowers with a coppery suffusion. The sepals are ovate and three-lobed; the petals are nearly circular and 3-veined; and the lip is spoon-shaped with a round, slightly thickened margin. The basal half of the lip is occupied by a rounded callus that protrudes from overlying the basal margin to near the middle. The lip of Stelis cupreata is very similar to that of Stelis cyathochila , but the plant differs by a larger habit, ramicauls much longer than the leaves, and especially the lateral sepals that are antrorse and connate to the dorsal sepal for about a third of their length." Luer 2017

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Harvard Pap. Bot. 22: 33 Luer & Escobar 2017 drawing fide

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