Vriesea rubra
Content
Description
Plant acaulescent, flowering to over 1 m long, with a large, spreading, 50-60 cm tall rosette of manypale-green leaves. Leaves thin-coriaceous, 50-70 cm long, much exceeded by the inflorescence; sheaths distinct, contracted inta the blades, elliptic, inflated-convex, 12-17 x 7.5-8.5 cm, with broad and pale membranaceous margins, (sub-)densely appressed-lepidote on both sides, pale-brown to castaneous at the base; blades arching, ligulate, 40-55 x 5.5-6.5 cmrounded and apiculate, obscurely lepidote or glabrescent, pale-green. Inflorescence erect, laxly or subdensely bipinnate of 3-10, polystichously arranged spikes, or sometimes tripinnate, then the lower branches digitate of two spikes, glabrous; scape 30-85 cm long, 7-10 mm in diam., glabrous, coral-red, nearly allover covered by bracts; scape bracts erect, densely imbricate, chartaceous, ovate(-oblong), apiculate, exceeding the internodes, but often so narrow as to expose the scape in part, sparsely and minutely appressed-lepidote at least at the apex; axis exposed, more or less elongate, slightly flexuous, angled or terete; primary bracts as the upper scape bracts, spreading with the spikes, much exceeding the short peduncle, the upper ones not much larger than the floral bracts, obscurely lepidote at the base or glabrous, red; peduncle suberect or spreading, 1-2(-3) cm long, only bearing a prophyl-like bract (halfway); spikes linear-lanceolate, strongly complanate, 9-26 x 1.5-2 cm, acutish, densely and distichously 10-30-flowered, with one sterile bract at the apex; rachis for most part exposed (when dry), flexuous, sharply angled, rugose, deep-red; floral bracts erect, imbricate, but so narrow as to expose the rachis, fleshy coriaceous, with slightly veined surface, ovate-oblong, 2.5-2.8 cm long, 2-4 times as long as the internodes, about equaling the sepals, apiculate or acutish, finely carinate in upper half, glabrous, yellow-green and tinged with red in lower part. Flowers contiguous, (sub-)sessile; receptacle narrowly obconic, ca. 2 mm long, bicarinate; sepals coriaceous, with faintly veined surface at the base only when dry, lanceolate, 2.2-2.4 cm long, acute, evenly short-connate, posterior ones somewhat thickened at the base (not distinctly carinate), slightly incurved at the extreme apex, glabrous; petals ligulate, over 3 cm long, white, bearing 2 largely adnate ligules at the base; ligules ca. 1.1 cm long, free lobes elliptic, ca. 2 mm long, entire or nearly so, obtuse; stamens included, all equal in length, exceeding the pistil by half of the anthers, filaments adnate to the petals, free part subterete, anthers basifixed, linear-sagittate, 6-7 mm long (free basal-lobes ca. 1 mm long); ovary slenderly ovoid, attenuate from near the base, then abruptly contracted into the slender style, stigmas short-sublinear, flat. Capsule very slenderly ovoid, equaling the sepals, ca. 0.5 cm in diam., attenuate, then abruptly short-beaked.