https://flickr.com/photos/186031494@N08 ... datetaken/. I have many other photos on there too which I may upload a thematic selection of a few of my favorites here at a future date if that's allowed. If you happen to be on Flickr, a comment or fave or whatever you like is definitely appreciated!
Hopefully I've followed the image posting guidelines.
Photo details- This is a stack of 53 images, shot on my Olympus OMD EM-5 III with 60mm M.zuiko lens at ISO 200, f4.5, 1/30 second. The magnification was at about 1:1.3. Lit with my LED terrarium light above and two external Ulanzi LED lights to fill in. Stacked in Zerene, Dmap retouched with Pmax slabs and individual source images to get rid of the moire-like effect of changing light in background without adding noise of Pmax. Some small artifacts edited out in photoshop. Exposure etc edited in Lightroom (classic!).
Please let me know any constructive criticism on exposure, composition, lighting etc!
More detailed botanical discussion-
This orchid is super interesting to me for a number of reasons. (Brief note- Stelis mystax is accepted name according to Kew, but I'm not familiar with the discussion on where this species rightfully belongs.) As with many orchids, the flower morphology is very interesting- the lateral sepals (two long pointed parts pointing diagonally downward and outward) are three-edged and seem nearly triangular in cross-section. The lip is an interesting spoon shape that seems appressed to the base of the lateral sepals before they diverge outward in angle (not sure if the sepals are connate along their base or simply close to each other as I didn't look at back of flower). The lip also seems to have some sort of liquid, sheen, or coating along its base (hypochile?) and especially along the long, thin sort of slit/pit- a few drops can be seen along the left side of the lip if you look closely in the Flickr image. Could serve to attract pollinators in some way? I watered the plants the day before but all other parts of the plant were dry. Lastly, the lateral petals converge to form an interesting almost tube-like shape seemingly immediately below the column/anther cap. The anther cap seems to have an interesting shape though not necessarily unique and I have no idea what the column looks like as I haven't dissected it or anything. Most of these traits seem fairly unique among Pleurothallids I'm familiar with.
