Stelis argentata Lindl. 1842 SECTION Stelis
Photo by Americo Docha Neto
Photos by Takao Ishii and His Orchid Photo Pages Copyright ©
Photos by © Oscar Duque Hernandez
Drawinga by © Carl Luer
to 
Common Name The Silvery Stelis [refered to the color of the originally described flower]
Flower Size 1/4" [6 mm]
Found in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Antioquia, Cauca and Nariño departments of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam and Amazonas and Minas Gerais states of Brazil in tropical rainforests at elevations of 120 to 2200 meters as a miniature sized, hot to cool growing, epiphyte with clustered, lightly complanate ramicauls enveloped by a large, subinflated tubular, scarious sheath and a single, apical, oblong, tapered to the base into the cuneate petiole, slightly tridentate at the apex, coriaceous leaf that blooms at any time fo the yearon an erect, 4" [10 cm] long, racemose, several to many flowered inflorescence with minute floral bracts .
This is a color variable species and comes in many colors and sizes, but the labellum structure is definitive. I am positive of the photos veracity as S argentata.
Similar to S agatha but it is distinguished by a crowded, distichous raceme of large flowes with five-veined dorsal sepals, thick, fleshy petals and a rounded lip with a minute, marginal apiculum
Synonyms Stelis acicularis Luer 1981; Stelis dubia Lindl. 1859; Stelis endresii Rchb. f. 1870; Stelis glandulosa Ames 1923; Stelis heylidyana H. Focke 1849; Stelis huebneri Schltr. 1925 ; Stelis littoralis Barb. Rodr. 1882; Stelis parvibracteata Ames 1922; Stelis pichinchae Dodson & Garay 1980; Stelis praesecta Schltr. 1923; Stelis superbiens Lindl. 1858; Stelis violascens Schltr. 1923; Stelis yauaperyensis Barb.Rodr. 1891
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Lankester's Epidendra Website CR as Stelis propinqua;
* Edwards's Bot. Reg. 28(Misc.): 64 Lindley 1842;
Tijdschr. Natuurk. Wetensch. Kunsten 2: 201 H Focke 1849 as S heylidyana;
Gard. Chron. 1870: 1373 Rchb.f 1870 as S endresii;
Gen. Spec. Orchid. 2: 85 Barb Rodr 1881 sd S littoralis;
Vellosia, ed. 2, 1: 120 Barb Rodr 1891 as S yauaperyensis;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 15: 201 Schlechter 1918 as S bernouli;
Orchidaceae 7: 131 Ames 1922 as S parvibracteata;
Schedul. Orchid. 3: 3 Ames 1923 as S glandulosa;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 175. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as S praesecta;
Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 176. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as S violascens; Beih. Bot. Centralbl. 42(2): 88 Schlechter 1925 as S huebneri;
The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 as S endresii drawing good;
Orchids of Guatemala Ames Correll 1952 as S endresii drawing good;
Orchids of Peru Vol 1 Schweinfurth 1958 as S endresii drawing fide;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 drawing fide;
Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as S endresii;
AOS Bulletin VOl 36 #9 1967;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 drawing fide;
Fieldiana Biology, Vol 33, 1st Supple. to the Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth 1970;
Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 as S yauaperyensis drawing ok;
Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 as S endresii drawing ok;
Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 as S littoralis drawing ok;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 330 Dodson 1980 as Stelis pichinchae drawing fide;
Phytologia 49: 224 Luer 1981 as S acicularis
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1273 Dodson 1985 drawing fide;
Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1288 Dodson 1985 as Stelis propinqua drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of the Pleurothallidinae Vol 1 1986 drawing fide;
The Orchids of Surinam Werkhoven 1986 photo fide; Orchids from The Coast Of Ecuador Arosemana, Jurado, Estrada and Konanz 1988 photo ok;
Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide;
Native Colombian Orchids Vol 4 COS 1992 photo fide;
The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 drawing/photo fide;
ORQUIDEA (MEX.) 13(1- 2) 19 Solano and Soto Arenas . DICIEMBRE 1993 as S endresii drawing/photo fide;
Orchids of the High Mountain Atlantic Rainforest in SE Brazil Warren & Miller 1994 as S littoralis drawing ok/photo ok;
Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 578 Bennett & Christenson 1998 drawing fide;
Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum plate 583 Bennett & Christenson 1998 as S yauaperyensis drawing fide;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide;
Orquideas de Bolivia Vol 1 Vasquez & Ibisch 2000 drawing fide/photo good;
Orquideologia Vol 22 #3 2003 drawing/photo fide;
Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide;
Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 drawing fide;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 photos fide;
Orchids of Mexico Hagsater etal 2005 as S endresii photo good;
Orquideas de la Serrania del Baudo Misas Urreta 2005 drawing/photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 76 # 8 2007 as S endresii photo fide;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz, Compendium Duque 2008 OK;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz, A Compendium Duque 2008 as S praesecta;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz, A Compendium Duque 2008 as S violascens;
The Organ Mountain Range Its History and its Orchids Miller, Warren and Seehauer 2008 as S argentata var pterostele drawing good;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica A Third Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2009drawing fide;
Mille et Une Mini Orchideees Roguenant 2009 photo fide;
Orquideas del Peru Freuler 2010 photo good; An Illustrated Field Guide to the Orchids of the Yotoco Forest Reserve Colombia Kolanowska, Escobar, Sanchez & Szlachetko 2011 drawing/photo fide;
Orquideas de Roirama Luz & Franco 2012 photo fide;
Orchidees du Bresil As Orquideas da Serra do Castelo [Espirito Santo Brazil] Chiron & Bolsanello Vol 2 2013 photo fide;
Harvard Papers in Botany, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 173 to 196 MISCELLANEOUS NEW SPECIES IN THE PLEUROTHALLIDINAE (ORCHIDACEAE) Carlyle A. Luer & Lisa Thoerle 2013; AOS Bulletin Vol 87 #10 2018 photo fide;
Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018;
Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018 as S endresii;
* Selbyana 32(1,2): 16 Luer & Vasquez 2018;
Selbyana 32(1,2): 129 Luer & Vasquez 2018 Drawing fide;
Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 140 Luer & Escobar 2018 drawing fide
Orquideas de Farallones de Cali Galindo-Tarazona, Haelterman, Zuluaga Trochez and Sebastian Moreno 2020 photo fide
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