Stelis are a genus closely related to Masdevallias and Pleurothallis. They are not widely grown in collections but the orchid project has been a big fan since first coming into contact with Stelis species in the cloud forests of Brazil and Costa Rica on expeditions.

Stelis genychila like most Stelis species has flattish flowers with three larger sepals, forming a triangle, and much smaller petals and lip in the centre. See if you can spot the parts of the flower in the close up.

We love the effect of the massed small flowers of Stelis although Stelis genychila has some of the biggest flowers of the 20 species of Stelis we have in our collection.

The species comes from cloud forest in Colombia and so we grow it in cool Americas where it looks as though it wants to grow into a specimen plant.