Stelis sarae Luer & Hirtz 2013 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name or Meaning Sara's Stelis Ecuadorian Sara Gutierrez, who cultivated this species at Jardin Botanico de Orquideas de Sarina current] Orquídeas de Sarina.

Flower Size .1" [2.5 mm]

Found in Ecuador without locational data as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, ascending epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a thin tubular sheath below the middle, and another below at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, linear-elliptic, acute, gradually narrowing below into the base leaf that blooms in the fall on an erect, arising from a node at the apex of the ramicaul through a spathe, peduncle 1.6 to 2.4" [4 to 6 cm] long, 4.8 to 6" [12 to 15 cm] long overall, slender, strict, secund, densely, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with as long as the ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers with bright yellow, glabrous sepals, yellow cuneate, concave petals and a yellow lip.

"This medium-sized, slender, ascending species is related to Stelis hylophila, but is distinguished by a much more steeply ascending habit, narrowly elliptical leaves, and a single, long, densely flowered, secund raceme. The sepals are similarly broad and obtuse, but neither recurving nor revolute. The petals and lip are similar, except that the bar of S. sarae is cleft. While the stigmatic lobes of S. hylophila are partially hidden by the margins of the clinandrium, the lobes of S. sarae are fully visible. It is also closely related to Stelis pusilla Kunth, but is distinguished by a larger and more robust habit with a thicker rhizome and larger flowers with a smilar lip that is widest below the middle rather than above the middle." Luer 2013

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Harvard Papers in Botany, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 173 to 196 MISCELLANEOUS NEW SPECIES IN THE PLEUROTHALLIDINAE (ORCHIDACEAE) Carlyle A. Luer & Lisa Thoerle 2013 drawing fide;

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