Stelis mystrion Luer & R.Escobar 2016 SECTION Nexipous

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Little Spoon Stelis [refers to the concave lip]

Flower Size .24" [6 mm]

Found in Antioquia department of Colombia at elevations around 1860 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, cool growing, densely caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a close, tubular sheath below the middle and another 1 to 2 at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, acute apically, narrowing below into the illdefined base leaf that blooms in the late winter and early spring on a single, erect, arising through a spathe from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .4 to .8" [1 to 2 cm] long, rachis 3.6 to 4.8" [9 to 12 cm] long, erect, strict, distichous, subflexuous, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying purple, glabrous flowers.

"This caespitose species is characterized by narrowly elliptical leaves and a many-flowered raceme that exceeds the leaf. The sepals are three-veined sepals with the lateral sepals antrorse. The petals are single-veined. The lip is spoon-shaped with a minute apiculum at the tip." Luer 2016

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Harvard Pap. Bot. 21: 79 Luer & Escobar 2016 drawing fide

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