Stelis drosophila

Stelis drosophila is a rewarding mini-miniature orchid native to the coastal cloudforests of Brazil. The photograph of the plant in flower (photo 1) is one of our stock plants and if you look closely the flowers appear as tiny balls of yellow. These flowers only open flat in high humidity, hence the name which means 'the dew loving Stelis'

I have also included a photograph (photo 2) of the drawing of the species by Helmut Seehawer, a German botanist I met in Brazil which shows the diminutive size of the species with leaves up to 4cm and clouds of tiny flowers.

We grow plants mounted and in pots in our 'Cloud Forest Greenhouse' min 12C where we keep plants shaded and well watered all year to replicate the conditions we experinced in the cloud forests of Rio State. Every afternoon as temperatures fell on the Organ Mountains the mists came down and left the forest dripping. (photos below of the Organ Mountains and the wet forest during the dry season.