ID Please Colombia 2

[Pitter]

What would this be?

[Afid]

That is a Stelis sp. The genus is quite tricky to ID to species level so I can't get farther than that, hopefully someone else can.

[Pitter]

Thank you very much.

[Roberta]

Stelis purpurea and Stelis maxima look a lot like like this... as Afid says, getting closer to the species is difficult if not impossible.

[Pitter]

Thank you Roberta.

[Roberta]

An interesting characteristic of both Ste. purpurea and maxima... probably other related species... I discovered quite by accident that they open early in the morning, then close as the day gets warmer, to open again the next morning. (I am not an early riser... mine I "caught in the act" one morning when I went outside earlier than usual after wondering for weeks when the buds were going to open.) My Ste. purpurea exhibits this behavior more strongly than Ste. maxima but both do it.

[Pitter]

Well S. purpurea is listed as being in the area I was visiting. We came across it about 10:30 in the morning when I photographed it but it now appears I photographed the wrong side of the flowers.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Pitter

Well S. purpurea is listed as being in the area I was visiting. We came across it about 10:30 in the morning when I photographed it but it now appears I photographed the wrong side of the flowers.

On a warm day mine has closed up by 8:30 or 9 AM... when it is cooler it might stay open to 10 or 10:30. So it may also be time of day.
Here's mine, the one on the left is the whole inflorescence early in the morning and the next is a closeup of it. The one on the right is the same inflorescence after 9 AM, flowers completely closed:

[Pitter]

Thank you Roberta that is very helpful. So perhaps I photographed it with the flowers closed then.