Stelis vanescens Luer 2017

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Harvard Pap. Bot. 22: 108 Luer 2017

LATER

Common Name The Disappearing Stelis [referring to the difficulty in finding a lip]

Flower Size .24" [6 mm]

Found in Chocó department of Colombia at elevations around 1900 to 1950 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, cool grwing, densely caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath from below the middle and another at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, acute, contracted below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the later summer on 1 to 2, erect, arising through a spathe from below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .4 to .8" [1 to 2 cm] long, rachis 2.8 to 4" [7 to 10 cm] long, erect, sublax, strict, distichous, mostly simultaneously, several flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, as long as the pedicel floral bracts and carrying yellow flowers.

"This caespitose species is characterized by a sublax raceme of middle-sized flowers; elliptical, three-veined sepals; cuneate, truncate petals; and an elusive lip. The flowers hydrate poorly, but only two lips were recovered from over a dozen flowers examined." Luer 2017

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Harvard Pap. Bot. 22: 108 Luer 2017 Drawing fide

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------