Stelis laxa Schltr. 1912 SECTION Stelis

Drawing by © Carl Luer

LATER

Common Name The Lax Stelis [referring to the habit of the plant]

Flower Size .08" [2 mm]

Found in La Paz and Cochabamba departments of Bolivia at elevations around 1500 to 3200 meters as a miniature sized, cool to cold growing, repent epiphyte with erect, slender, fasciculate ramicauls enveloped by a close tubular sheath below the middle another at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, acute to subacute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the later spring and summer on an erect, arising through a spathe below the apex of the ramicaul, 1.2 to 2.4" [3 to 6 cm] long including the .4 to .8" [1 to 2 cm] long peduncle, successively 2 to 6, several flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, shorter to as long as the ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers with usually purple, occasionally red, rose, tan, dell green and yellow sepals that are glabrous to microscopically cellular.

"This small, repent species is frequent on the eastern slopes of the Andes in central Bolivia. It is characterized by a slender, branching rhizome that bears at intervals short ramicauls with narrowly elliptical, petiolate leaves. The few-flowered inflorescence sometimes does not exceed the leaf. The flowers are usually dark purple; the petals, three-veined; and the lip, type A with a rounded callus on the dorsum." Luer & Vasquez 2018

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 10: 451 Schlechter 1912

Selbyana 32(1,2): 65 Luer & Vasquez 2018

Selbyana 32(1,2): 145 Luer & Vasquez 2018 Drawing fide

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