Stelis splendens Luer 2017 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Harvard Pap. Bot. 22: 107 Luer 2017

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Splendid Stelis [referring to overall nice appearance]

Flower Size .16" [4 mm]

Found in Valle de Cauca department of Colombia at elevations around 2250 meters as a medium sized, densely caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath above the middle and another at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, ovate, acute , contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late winter and early spring on 3 to 4, erect, arising through a spathe from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle 1.2 to 1.6" [3 to 4 cm] long, rachis 5.2 to 6" [13 to 15 cm] long, erect, strict, subcongested, distichous, mostly simultaneously, many flowered inflorescence with small, oblique, acute, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and carrying white flowers.

"This tall, immense species is distinguished by white flowers borne in several racemes that more or less equal in length a large, ovate, acute and petiolate leaf. The ovate, acute sepals and the obtuse petals are three-veined. The dorsum of the lip, similar to that of Stelis bigibba Schltr., is acutely deflexed leaving the bar as a narrow edge between the sides of the lip." Luer 2017

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Harvard Pap. Bot. 22: 107 Luer 2017 Drawing fide

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