Stelis lanata Lindl. 1859 SECTION Stelis
Photos/Drawing by © S Manning/Carl Luer
Common Name The Wooly Stelis [refers to the pubescence]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Pichincha, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua and Morona-Santiago provinces of central Ecuador and La Paz department of Bolivia at elevations around 2500 to 3200 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing, ascending-caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender, fasciculate ramicauls enveloped by a close tubular sheath on the middle third and another 1 to 2 at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute to subacute, narrowly cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer, fall and winter on 1 to 3, erect, arising through a spathe below the apex of the ramicaul, 3.2 to 6" [8 to 15 cm] long including the .8 to 1.6" [2 to 4 cm] long peduncle, erect, congested, distichous, mostly simultaneously, many flowered inflorescence with oblique, infundibular, acute, shorter than the ovary floral bracts.
"This uncommon species is widely distributed in the Andes. The illustration in Luer (2009), was made from a poor flower, but the illustration provided herein is faithful, agreeing with a flower from the holotype. Stelis lanata Lindl. is distinguished by a crowded raceme longer than a narrow leaf; large floral bracts; and a lip with a cleft bar similar to that of S. campanulifera Lindl., but the sepals of S. lanata are densely long-pubescent within. From S. euspatha Rchb.f., S. lanata also differs with three-veined petals that are concave below a transverse carina." Luer & Vasquez 2018
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Fol. Orchid. 8: 13 Lindley 1859
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV Luer 2009;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV Luer 2009 drawing fide;
Selbyana 32(1,2): 65 Luer & Vasquez 2018
Selbyana 32(1,2): 145 Luer & Vasquez 2018 Drawing fide
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