Stelis voluptuosa Luer & R.Escobar 2016

TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer

Common Name The Voluptuous Stelis [Refers tothe delightful appearance of the plant]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Antioquia department of Colombia at elevations around 2800 meters as a small sized, cold growing, shortly repent epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped by a loose tubular sheath below the middle and 2 others below and at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, elliptical-oblong, obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on an erect, peduncle 2.4 to 3.2" [6 to 8 cm] long, arising through a thin spathe from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, rachis 10 to 12.8" [25 to 32 cm] long, strict, congested, distichous, , mostly simultaneoulsy many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, longer to shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying glabrous to microscopically cellular pubescent flowers that are brown externally and green internally.

"Stelis voluptuosa is a large, shortly repent species with the rhizome [.2 to .24" [5 to 6 mm] thick bearing stout ramicauls about .2" [five mm] apart. The leaves are thickly coriaceous, elliptical-oblong and obtuse, and far surpassed by a many-flowered raceme with prominent floral bracts and large, five-veined sepals. The petals are proportionately large with a thick, rounded apex and five-veined. The lip is type A with round apex, a glenion, and a rounded callus on the dorsum." Luer 2016

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Harvard Pap. Bot. 21: 89 Luer & Escobar 2016 Drawing fide

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