Stelis mucronipetala Schltr. 1924 SECTION Humboldtia
Drawings by Carl Luer
Common Name The Sharp-Pointed Petals Stelis
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Nariño department of Colombia at elevations around 2700 to 3300 meters as a small sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath below the middle and 1 to 2 others below and at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical-ovate, acute to subacute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring, summer and winter on 1 to 2, erect, peduncle 1.2 to 2" [3 to 5 cm] long, arising through a slender spathe from a node near the apex of the ramicaul, rachis 6 to 12" [15 to 30 cm] long, distichous, sublax, mostly simultaneoulsy many flowered inflorescence with oblique, obtuse, much shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying purple brown, glabrous flowers with a rose colored central apparatus.
"This large, caespitose species is one of several with long-apiculate petals and lip similar to those of Stelis pardipes Rchb.f., which is frequent in Central America and the Andes, and several prolific species, i.e. S. bicornis Lindl. and S. triseta Lindl. Stelis mucronipetala is distinguished by a larger habit, twice broader elliptical-ovate leaves; twice larger flowers with the dorsal sepal six to eight millimeters long; and a suborbicular synsepal. The petals and lip are similar to those of S. pardipes, with the slender, apical processes of the petals and lip pointing forward like the three prongs of a trident." Luer 2018
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 37 Luer & Escobar 2018 Drawing fide
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