Stelis marginata Luer & R.Escobar 2016 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name The Margined Stelis [refers tothe narrowly thickened margins of the sepals]

Flower Size .24" [6 mm]

Found in Cauca department of Colombia at elevations around 3150 meters as a small sized, cold growing, scandent, long repent epiphyte with ascending, slender ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath below the middle and another 1 to 2 below and at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a single, arising from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .2" [5 mm] long, rachis to 4 to 5.2" [10 to 13 cm] long, erect, strict, congested, distichous, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with tubular, oblique, acute, longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers. with light green above the middle and purple beneath the middle and a green central apparatus.

"This small, scandent species is superficially similar to the relatively frequent and sympatric Stelis scansor Rchb.f., but S. marginata is a larger plant with a stout rhizome with a shorter distance between ramicauls. A longer raceme with much longer floral bracts bears medium-sized flowers with obtuse, three-veined sepals with narrowly thickened margins. The petals are similarly single-veined, and the lip is type A with a rounded, pubescent callus at the base." Luer 2016

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Harvard Pap. Bot. 21: 205 Luer & Escobar 2016 drawing fide

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