Guzmania steyermarkii
Content
Description
Plant acaulescent, flowering up to over 1.5 mm long, with a ca. 60 cm tallpale-green rosette. Leaves stiff-chartaceous, ligulate, 60-105 x 4.5-6 cm, much exceeded by the scape, attenuately acute or faintly acuminate (involute toward the apex and pungent when dry), sparsely appressed-lepidote, more densely so near the base; sheaths 8-9 cm wide. Inflorescence erect, laxly bi- or tripinnate below, of about 12 polystichously arranged racemes, pale-brown floccose; scape 70-80 cm long, ca. 1 cm in diam., hidden by bracts at least below; scape bracts erect, the lower ones foliaceous, densely imbricate, the upper ones ovate-lanceolate, triangular-attenuate (involute when dry), exceeding the internodes, but so narrow as to expose the scape in part, sparsely appressed-lepidote, yellowish-green; axis elongate, not at all hidden, nearly straight, subterete, wine-red; primary bracts as the upper scape bracts, spreading with the branches, the upper ones becoming smaller, more broadly ovate and apiculate, exceeding the peduncle, soon inconspicuously lepidote, yellow with orange or reddish; peduncle 0.6-1.2 cm long, naked; racemes spreading, elongate, subcylindric, 4-12 cm long, rounded (before anthesis), laxly and polystichously about 14-flowered or less, often with a few reduced sterile bracts at the apex; rachis exposed, slightly flexuous and curved or almost straight, angled; floral bracts shortly clasping the flower, then abruptly divergent, stiff-chartaceous, with slightly veined surface when dry, (broadly) ovate, 1-1.5 cm long, much exceeding internodes except for the lower ones, much shorter than the sepals, apiculate or acutish, obscurely carinate and slightly incurved at the apex, sparsely appressed-lepidote, yellow (with orange?). Flowers spreading, often turning downward at anthesis; pedicels 2-3 mm long; sepals fleshy coriaceous at the base, with slightly veined surface (when dry), asymmetrically linear-lanceolate, 2-2.3 cm long, with membranaceous margin at one side, connate evenly for ca. 4 mm, all alate-carinate below, sparsely floccose; petals ligulate, ca. 3 cm long, free lobes ovate and obtuse; stamens included, filaments highly adnate to the petal-tube, anthers dorsifixed (at 1/2), ca. 4 mm long; pistil about equaling the filaments; ovary slenderly ovoid, ca. 6 mm long, abruptly contracted into the slender style. Capsule broadly cylindric, ca. 2 cm long, just exceeding the sepals, broadest near the apex, rounded and short-beaked; coma reddish-brown.