Stelis pubipetala Luer & Hirtz 2002 SECTION Stelis

TYPE drawing by Carl Luer

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Pubescent Petal Stelis

Flower Size .24" [6 mm]

Found in Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador at elevations around 1250 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, scandent, long repent epiphyte with ascending to erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath near the middle and 2 to 3 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on an erect, peduncle .6 to .8" [1.5 to 2 cm] long, arising through a spathe .36 to .4" [.9 to 1 cm] long, from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, rachis 2.6 to 4.4" [6.5 to 11 cm] long, congested, distichous, two ranked, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers with expanded, yellow green, glabrous externally, minutely pubescent within sepals, purple, triangular with a thick, shortly pubecent margin petals and a purple, thick, triangular lip.

"The species is related to Stelis lancea but S pubipetala is distinguished by the long repent habit the long ramicauls and a petiolate base leaf, larger flower, triangular petals with a thick, shortly pubescent margin and a subtriangular lip that is shallowly concave with three distinct calli on the dorsum." Luer 2002

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002

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

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