Stelis paradoxa Luer & R.Escobar 2016 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Paradoxical Stelis [Refers to the odd growth habit]

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Antioquia department of Colombia at elevations around 2200 meters as a small sized, cold growing, repent epiphyte with a descending stout rhizome giving rise to descending, relatively stout ramicauls enveloped by a loose tubular sheath and another at the base and carrying a single, apical, descending, coriaceous, ellipical, obtuse, narrowing below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the late winter and early spring on a single, pendent, from a node at the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .4 to .8" [1 to 2 cm] long, rachis 1.6 to 2.8" [4 to 7 cm] long, erect, strict, lax, successively few, several flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, as long as to shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and carrying non resupinate, microscopically pubescent flowers with white sepals and a dark purple central apparatus.

"This small, pendent species is similar to Stelis pendulata, but differs with smaller, elliptical leaves and shorter ramicauls produced along a descending rhizome. The pendent raceme exceeds the leaf, and bears relatively large flowers with widely spread, white sepals and dark purple petals and lip" Luer 2016

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Harvard Pap. Bot. 21: 80 Luer 2016 drawing fide

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