Stelis decipula Luer & R.Escobar 2016 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name The Snare Stelis [refers to the to the callus of the lip]

Flower Size .24" [6 mm]

Found in Nariño department of Colombia at elevations around 3000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing, densely caespitose terrestrial or epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a loose, tubular sheath above the middle and 1 below the middle and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, oblong, obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a single, arising through a spathe from a node at the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle 2" [5 cm], rachis to 5.4 to 6" [13 to 15 cm] long, erect, congested, secund, mostly simultaneously, many flowered inflorescence with tubular, close, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers with with light purple sepals and a yellow central appartaus.

"This small, caespitose species is characterized by an elongated, secund raceme far exceeding oblong, obtuse leaves; minutely pubescent, subacute, three-veined sepals; and three-veined petals. Most distinctive is the rhomboid lip with a longitudinal callus resembling a loop of rope, similar to the horseshoe-shaped callus of Stelis hippocrepica ." Luer 2017

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Harvard Pap. Bot. 21: 65 Luer & Escobar 2016 drawing fide

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