Stelis phaeomelana Schltr. 1929
SECTION Stelis
Drawing by © Carl Luer and Selbyana 32(1,2): 86 Luer & Vasquez 2018
Common Name The Dusky Black Stelis [referring to the flowers in the dry state]
Flower Size .24" [6 mm]
Found in La Paz department of Bolivia at elevations around 1400 meters as a small to medium sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped by a close tubular sheath above the middle and another loose, tubular sheath at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on an erect, through a tubular sheath from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncel 1.2 to 2.8" [3 to 7 cm] long, rachis 4.8 to 5.2" [12 to 13 cm] long, erect, strict, congested, simultaneously many, numerous flowered inflorescence with broad, obtuse floral bracts and carrying flowers with greenish white sepals, purple petals and a purple lip.
"This large, uncommon species is characterized by a one or two single, densely flowered racemes that surpass a large, broadly elliptical, distinctly petiolate leaf. The sepals are overlapping, broad, more or less convex, three-veined and densely short-pubescent; the petals are three-veined; and the lip is type A with a broadly rounded apex. Stelis phaeomelana Schltr. was published simultaneously with the very similar S. ottonis Schltr.. Schlechter distinguished S. phaeomelana from the latter by having two racemes instead of one, but more collections disprove that claim; pubescent sepals instead of glabrous; and differences in the stigmatic lobes that Schlechter called "lateral lobes" of the column." Luer & Vasquez 2018
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 27: 45 Schlechter 1929;
Selbyana 32(1,2): 86 Luer & Vasquez 2018
Selbyana 32(1,2): 151 Luer & Vasquez 2018 Drawing fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------