Stelis nycterina Luer & Hirtz 2002 SECTION Humboldtia

TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer

Presumably LATE EARLY

Common Name or Meaning The Bat Like Stelis [refers to the ear-like petals]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador without locational data as a mini-miniature sized, presumably cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped by 2 tublar sheaths and carrying a single, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical-obovate, subacute, narrowly cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on an erect, peduncle .8 to 1.2" [2 to 3 cm] long, from below the apex of the ramicaul, rachis .4 to 1.2" [1 to 3 cm] long, lax, subdense, successively 2 to 3, several flowered inflorescence with infundibular, obtuse, almost as long as the ovary floral bract and carrying transluscent purple flowers with glabrous sepals, purple petals and a purple lip.

"This species is closely allied to S globiflora being somwewhere in between it and S dactyloptera and S floriana. All four species are charachterized by modifications of the inner margin of the apex of the petals. they are triangular and acute in S nycterina, dilateed and rounded in S globiflora and fringed in S dactyloptera and S floriani. As with the others the lip od S nycterina is shallowly discoid with a tall notched bar at the apex and a rounded callus on the dorsum." Luer 2009

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002 Drawing fide;

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