Vriesea pleiosticha
Content
Description
Plant acaulescent, flowering 1-1.5 m long, with a spreading, 30-70 cm tall rosette of about 30(pale-)green leaves. Leaves coriaceous, 40-120 cm long, much exceeded by the inflorescence; sheaths ample, tapering into the blade, elliptic, broadly convex, 14-20 x 8-12 cm, densely appressed-lepidotewith pale-brown and dark-centered scales, pale-brown to dull-castaneous; blades ligulate, 30-100 x 6-8 cm, triangular-subacute or rounded and apiculate, sparsely appressed-lepidote or subglabrous, (pale-) green. Inflorescence erect, polystichously bipinnate of 10-20 spikes or more, slenderly ovoid or subcylindric, sublax, becoming dense toward the apex, pale-green; scape ca. 50 cm long, ca. 1 cm in diam., obscurely lepidote, densely hidden by bracts; scape bracts erect, densely imbricate, foliaceous but the upper ones more broadly ovate and with triangular blades, exceeding the internodes (exclusive of the blade), sparsely appressed-lepidote; axis exposed for most part, rather stout, nearly straight, sulcate (when dry), obscurely lepidote, primary bracts as the upper scape bracts, spreading with the branches, the lower ones exceeding the spikes by the blade, the upper ones often shorter and only acuminate; spikes on ca. 1 cm long peduncles, slenderly ovoid, 3.5-6.5 cm long, ca. 2 cm in diam., acute, densely and polystichously 3-10-flowered, often with one sterile bract at the base and apex; rachis hidden, flexuous, angled, subglabrous; floral bracts erect, densely imbricate, subchartaceous, with even or slightly veined surface toward the apex, (broadly) ovate, 2.7-3.5 cm long, very many times longer than the internodes, much exceeding the sepals, with broad membranaceous margins, obtuse and apiculate, distinctly carinate toward the apex, minutely lepidote, pale-green. Flowers erect, sessile; receptacle obconic, ca. 3.5 mm long, alate; sepals coriaceous, with even surface, obovate-oblong, 2-2.4 cm long, obtuse, evenly connate for 2.5-3 mm, posterior ones bluntly carinate at least at the base, sparsely appressed-lepidote inside, glabrous outside; petals ligulate, 2.5-3 cm long, agglutinated for ca. 7 mm, rounded and slightly incurved, white, bearing 2 highly adnate ligules at the base; ligules linear, ca. 1 cm long, highly adnate to the petals, free lobe triangular-ovate, obtuse or attenuate; stamens included, equal in length, exceeding the pistil by half of the anthers, filaments adnate for ca. 1 cm to the petals, anthers dorsifixed, ca. 4.5 mm long, apiculate; ovary triangular-ovoid, ca. 5 mm long, abruptly contracted into the slender style, stigmas linear, ca. 4 mm long, hooked at the apex. Capsule broadly cylindric, ca. 2.5 cm long, just exceeding the sepals, rounded and short-beaked.
Distribution
Amazonian Brazil present, Guianas present, Southern America: Costa Rica (Costa Rica present); Peru (Peru present), Tobago present, Trinidad present
Costa Rica to Peru and the Guianas, Amazonian Brazil, Trinidad, Tobago. 13 collections studied.
Cultivation
Not known in cultivation; the inflorescence has an interesting shape, but is not very colorful.
Notes
Many collections were annotated Guzmania pleiosticha (Grisebach) Mez for a long period of time, but this material proved not to belong to the same species as the type, Fendler 1514. For all those collections Guzmania altsonii L.B. Smith becomes the valid name. Guzmania pleiosticha and Vriesea splitgerberi are synonymous, and Fendler 1514 must be considered the type (see species 2.1).