Stelis leptochila Luer & R.Escobar 2018 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Selbyana 32(1,2): 68 Luer & Vasquez 2018

EARLY

Common Name The Thin Lipped Stelis [referring to the thickness of the lip]

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in La Paz department of Bolivia at elevations around 3100 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, cold growing, ascending-caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath below the middle and 2 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, subacute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the early summer on an erect, through a slender spathe from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .4" [1 cm] long, rachis 1.2 to 1.6" [3 to 4 cm] long, erect, strict, congested, mostly simultaneously, many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, as long as to longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying yellow flowers.

"This species is apparently limited to an area of high altitude along the Río Unduavi in central Bolivia where it grows with Stelis iwatsukae T.Hashim.. It is distinguished by an ascending habit; narrowly elliptical, petiolate leaves; and shorter racemes with floral bracts as long as the flower. Most unusual is the lip that is more or less lunate, and so thin that the dorsum is merely a transverse groove behind the bar." Luer & Vasquez 2018

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Selbyana 32(1,2): 68 Luer & Vasquez 2018

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

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