Stelis hansenacea Luer & R.Escobar 2016 SECTION Stelis
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
LATER 
Common Name The Hansen's Diseae Stelis [refers to the superficially similar skin lesions of Hansen’s disease, leprosy, to those of the floral parts of this species]
Flower Size .12" [3 cm]
Found in Risaralda department of Colombia at elevations around 2800 meters as a miniature to small sized, cold growing, densely caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a thin tubular sheath below the middle and another below the middle and another at the base and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, erect, elliptical, subacute, cuneate below into the base leaf that blooms in the later spring on a single, arising through a spathe from a node at the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle less than .08 to 1.2" [2 to 3 cm] long, rachis 3.6 to 4" [9 to 10 cm] long, erect, congested, secund,mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying dull green flowers.
"Vegetatively, this miniature to small sized, caespitose species is similar to many, but it is distinguished by diffuse deposits of a granular substance in all floral parts. The identity of this substance is unknown. It seems to proliferate as seen in the formation of crystals, already noted in Stelis coralloides Luer & Hirtz, and seen in Stelis leprina Luer & R.Escobar described herein. Could it be an infection by a fungus? The flowers of this “susceptible” species are produced in an extremely congested raceme of overlapping flowers facing the same direction. The sepals are ovate, obtuse, and filled with this mysterious substance, and without visible veins. The petals are three-veined with the veins “infected.” The lip is a simple type A." Luer & Escobar 2016
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Harvard Pap. Bot. 21: 73 Luer & R Escobar 2016 drawing fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------