Vriesea soderstromii
Content
Description
Plant acaulescent, including inflorescence ca. 1 m long, with a spreading or funnelform, ca. 50 cm tall rosette of about 20, somewhat lustrous-green and reddish leaves. Leaves ca. 65 cm long, exceeding the scape; sheaths ample, tapering or contracted into the blade, subcoriaceous, elliptic, broadly convex, 16-20 cm long, ca. 15 cm wide, with membranaceous margins, very densely brown-appressed-lepidote, ferrugineous to castaneous below (outside); blades arching, thin-coriaceous, ligulate, broadly convex, ca. 45 x 9 cm, broadly rounded and triangular-acuminate, recurving at the apex, subdensely appressed-lepidote and tinged with red below, soon becoming inconspicuously lepidote above. Inflorescence subdigitately compound of about 7 suberect spikes, red; scape erect, short, ca. 1 cm in diam., glabrous, concealed by the leaves; scape bracts imbricate, chartaceous, (broadly) ovate, with a small greentriangular blade, about twice as long as the internodes (?), appressed-lepidote, red; axis wholly covered by bracts, straight or nearly so, glabrous; primary bracts as the upper scape bracts, but more apiculate, suberect, imbricate, much shorter than the peduncle, wholly red; peduncles suberect or slightly spreading, 15-20 cm long, glabrous, entirely covered by bracts; peduncle bracts as the floral bracts, but polystichously arranged, densely imbricate, more than twice as long as the internodes; spikes linear, slightly if at all complanate, 28-40 cm long, ca. 1.2 cm in diam., attenuately acute, distichously 10-16-flowered, a few sterile bracts at the apex; rachis covered at anthesis, slightly flexuous, alate-angled (when dry), glabrous; floral bracts erect, densely imbricate, chartaceous, with veined surface (when dry), ovate-lanceolate, 5.3-6 cm long, acutish or obscurely cucullate, more than twice as long as the internodes, much exceeding the sepals, finely carinate toward the apex, appressed-lepidote, red. Flowers contiguous, (sub-) sessile; receptacle obconic, ca. 5 mm long, alate; sepals thin-coriaceous, with veined surface (when dry), linear-lanceolate, ca. 3.6 cm long, obtuse and slightly incurved at the apex, posterior ones carinate, sparsely floccose, green; petals erect, linear (-ligulate) broadest near the apex, deep pink, bearing two highly adnate ligules at the base; ligules linear, free lobe dentate; stamens all alike, just exceeded by the petals and pistil, filaments slender, straight, flat, except near the apex, anthers dorsifixed (at 1/3), ca. 6 mm long; ovary slenderly ovoid, ca. 7 mm long, tapering into the slender style. Capsule and coma not known.