Stelis glumacea Lindl. 1859 SECTION Stelis

Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name The Glumaceous Stelis [an allusion to the conspicuous, floral bracts

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Pichincha and Imbabura provinces of Ecuador at elevations around 1400 to 2100 meters as a miniature sized, cool to cold growing, densely caespitose to shortly repent epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a loose tubular sheath above the middle and 2 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical-ovate, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on an erect, arising through a spathe from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, distichous, congested, 6.4 to 8" [16 to 20 cm] long including the 2 to 3.2" [5 to 8 cm] long the peduncle, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, much longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying purple brown and brown, sensitive flowers.

"Similar to S lindenii but the large, protruding floral bracts compared to a "Spike of Wheat" by Lindley separate them. The sepals are fleshy, broadly ovate and often close when disturbed." Luer 2009

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Fol. Orchid. 8: 3 Lindley 1859

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV 2009

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV 2009 drawing fide

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

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