Stelis zarumae Luer & Hirtz 2002 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer

Common Name The Zaruma Stelis [Refers to the community where the species was collected]

Flower Size .16" [4 mm]

Found in El Oro province of Ecuador at elevations around 1800 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 2 tubular sheaths and another at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, acute to subacute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on an erect, arising through an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .8" [2 cm] long, arising througn an inconspicuous spathe from below the apex of the ramicaul, rachis 2.4 to 3.2" [6 to 8 cm] long, subcongested, distichous, mostly simultaneously several flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, just shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying red purple, densely white pubescent flowers with a purple central apparatus.

"Characterized by suborbicular, convex, red-purple sepals covered by a long, dense, white pubescence. The thick petals are proportionally large. The glenion of the lip is prominent with elevated margins. A distant, cruciform callus is present on the dorsum of the lip." Luer 2002

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

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

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV A First Century of the Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002 drawing ok;

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