Vriesea procera
Content
Description
Plant acaulescent, very variable, flowering up to 1.2(-2) m long, with a dense spreading, ca. 50 cm tall rosette of about 20green leaves. Leaves thin-coriaceous, 35-50 cm long, much exceeded by the scape; sheaths distinct, tapering into the blades, elliptic, scarcely inflated, 13-15 x 7-8.5 cm, densely punctulate-lepidote, outside often in great part castaneous and purplish toward the apex; blades arched-spreading to recurved, ligulate, soon nearly flat, 20-30 x 3.5-5.5 cm, rounded and apiculate, sparsely and minutely pale-brown lepidote, green. Inflorescence erect, laxly and bipinnately compound of a few to over 10 polystichously arranged racemes; scape to ca. 80 cm long, sometimes over 1 cm in diam., but often soon (sub-) slender, glabrous, hidden or partly exposed; scape bracts all foliaceous or the upper ones more ovate-oblong, attenuate, subacute or apiculate, sparsely lepidote; axis ample, soon slender, slightly flexuous, terete, glabrous; primary bracts as the upper scape bracts, soon becoming smaller, suberect or divergent with the branches, exceeding or slightly shorter than the sterile, prophyllate base of the branches; racemes spreading, 15-36 cm long, laxly and distichously few- to 20-flowered; rachis exposed, slightly flexuous, angled, glabrous; floral bracts spreading with the flowers at anthesis, thin-coriaceous, with even surface, ovate (-oblong), 1.5-3.5 cm long, about as long as or longer than the internodes, from distinctly shorter to equaling the sepals, broadly acute or obtuse, finely carinate toward the apex, glabrous, yellow-green, sometimes suffused with red. Flowers spreading, on 6-8 mm long pedicels; sepals thin-coriaceous, with even surface, obovate-oblong, 2.3-2.8 cm long, membranaceous at the margins, obtuse, obscurely incurved at the apex, free, ecarinate, glabrous; petals erect with divergent blade, ligulate, ca. 3 cm long, yellow, bearing 2 entire, subrhombic or obovate-lanceolate scales at the base; stamens raising from the throat of the corolla, exceeded by the petals, filaments membranaceous, flat, anthers dorsifixed (nearly at the base), nearly 5 mm long; ovary ca. 5 mm long, style slender. Capsule cylindric, to 4.5 cm long, short-beaked.