Stelis gigantissima Luer 2004 SECTION Stelis
TYPE Drawing of S gigantea by Carl Luer
LATER
AND AGAIN
Common Name or Meaning The Most Giant Sized Stelis [refers to the plant size]
Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]
Found in Napo province of Ecuador at elevations of 1000 to 1900 meters as a just large sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte or terrestrial with stout, erect ramicauls with a tubular sheath near the middle and 2 others at the base and carrying a single, erect, coriaceous, broadly elliptical-ovate obtuse, rounded into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the later summer and again in the winter on an erect, peduncle 6" [15 cm] long, arising through a 2" [5 cm] long spathe at the base of the leaf, rachis 24" [60 cm] long, strict, congested, distichous, many flowered inflorescence with oblique, obtuse, longer than the pedicel floral bract and carrying dark purple flowers .
"This species is the second largest in the genus only S excentrica is larger with broadly ellitic, dinner plate sized leaves as large as any in the Pleurothallidinae. In addition to meter long ramicauls and immense size of the leaf it is distinguished by the numerous, dark purple flowers on an inflorescence three quarters of a meters long. The lowermost flowers are the largest with ovate, glabreous spreading sepals, thickly fan shaped petals and the type A lip is small, cuneate and concave anteriorly." Luer 2009
Synonyms Stelis gigantea Luer & Hirtz 2002 nom Illeg
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002 as S gigantea
Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002 as S gigantea Drawing fide
Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV Luer 2009;
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