Stelis dapidis Luer & R. Escobar 2018 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name The Feasted On Stelis [refers to its lip and petals being eaten by an uninvited guest]

Flower Size .24" [6 mm]

Found in Norte de Santander department of Colombia at elevations around 2800 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, cold growing, ascending epiphyte with erect, densely fasciled, 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, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, acuminate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on 1 to 2, erect, from a node near the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle 1.2" [3 cm] long, rachis 2 to 3.2" [5 to 8 cm] long, erect, strict, flexuous, distantly flowered, .4 to .6 [1 to 1,5 cm] between each, successively 1 to 3, few flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and carrying glabrous flowers with light rose colored sepals and white petals. Lip not seen.

"The distinctive inflorescence of this small species is like no other known today. One or two weak, flexuous, distantly and successively flowered racemes of 5 or 6 small, longpedicellate flowers are produced. Unfortunately, most of the petals, and all of the lip and column, except for a 3-veined column-foot, appear to have been eaten by a selective intruder. In spite of the missing information, this species from a remote locality is being given a specific name, for another collection that will be recognized in the future." Luer 2018

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 146 Luer & Escobar 2018 drawing fide

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