Orchid Borealis

Stelis mystax is endemic to a small area of central Panama (around  Santa Fe  in the province of  Veraguas ) from altitude 650-750m, but locally abundant (Luer 2007, p. 97-98). The species epithet, mystax, means a mustache in Latin (originally derived from ancient Greek) because the lateral sepals look like one. Stelis mystax was originally described under genus Pleurothallis by C.A. Luer, but it was moved to a monotypic genus,  Mystacorchis , in 2001.  Molecular phylogeny, based on nuclear ITS and chloroplast matK , shows that  Stelis mystax  is clustered with Dracontia  (= previous Pleurothallis section Dracontia ) species used for the study, which include   Stelis alta ,  S. carnosilabia ,  S. cobanensis ,  S. dracontea ,  S. gigantea ,  S. megachlamys , S. papillifera ,  Dracontia hydra , and  D. lueriana , and two other unique species,  S. carpinterae  and  S. convallaria ...

I received this plant from Ecuagenera in spring, 2017 as  Stelis trichostoma , a narrow endemic found in  Zamora-Chinchipe Province  of Ecuador (Luer 2000,  p. 85).  This species was originally described as  Pleurothallis trichostoma  (Luer 1979, p. 185).  Jay Pfahl (of IOSPE ) commented below that the plant I have is actually  Stelis rostratissima , and after examining the illustration, I agree that he is correct.  S.  rostratissima  was originally described as Pleurothallis rostratissima  (Luer 2002).  The description was based on a plant cultivated by Ecuagenera, originally derived from Zumba, Zamora-Chinchipe Province , Ecuador, altitude 1300m ( holotype illustration ).  The generic affiliation of this and related species has been changed several times in the past;  Specklinia  and  Effusiela . The plant has wiry inflorescence, and several moccasin-shaped flowers wiggle around with sli...