Tillandsia jenmanii
Content
Description
Plant acaulescent, flowering up to 40(-60) cm long, with a small (10-25 cm) utriculate rosette, of 10-20(-30)cinereous-green leaves. Leaves 8-22 cm long, often much exceeded by the scape; sheaths distinct, contracted into the narrow blades, chartaceous, suborbicular or ovate, much inflated-convex, 3-4.8 cm wide, very densely appressed-lepidote, but with minute scales at the base, brownish to cinereous-green in upper part, often purple-red spotted outside and deep purple-red inside; blades suberect or arching, thin-coriaceous, very narrowly triangular, often involute when dry, 4-14 x 0.4-1 cm, with more or less undulate margins, filiform-attenuate, more or less appressed-lepidote, cinereous-green. Inflorescence very laxly bi- or tripinnate of (3-)5-18 distichously arranged branches, sparsely lepidote or floccose; scape erect or rarely curved, 10-25 cm long, 1-2 mm in diam., for most part exposed; scape bracts erect, remote, ovate, the lower ones filiform-caudate, the upper ones more apiculate, about half as long as the internodes or less, (sub-) densely appressed-lepidote; axis elongate, slightly flexuous, angled; primary bracts as the upper scape bracts, spreading with the branches, (much) shorter than the sterile part of the branches; peduncle 0.5-2.5 cm long, naked; spikes spreading, elongate, 1-5.5(-9) cm long, very laxly and distichously 3-12-flowered, with one sterile bract at the apex; rachis exposed, slightly flexuous or nearly straight, angled; floral bracts spreading with the flowers, with even surface, broadly ovate, ca. 2 mm long, less than half as long as the internodes, much exceeded by the sepals, broadly rounded and obscurely apiculate, ecarinate, sparsely lepidote or floccose. Flowers sessile; receptacle broadly obconic ca. 1 mm long, bluntly angled; sepals coriaceous, with even surface, asymmetrically obovate, 4-5 mm long, with broad veinless margin at one side, emarginate, free, ecarinate, only sparsely appressed-lepidote outside; petals ovate, ca. 5 mm long, slightly exceeding the sepals; stamens deeply included, exceeding the pistil (?), anthers basifixed, sagittate, less than 1 mm long; ovary subglobose, abruptly contracted into the short style. Capsule slenderly cylindric, 1.7-2.8 cm long and much exceeding the floral bracts, abruptly rounded and short-beaked.
Distribution
Guayana present, Guayana Highland of E. Bolivar present, Southern America: Cuba (Cuba present); Haiti (Haiti present); Venezuela (Venezuela present ‒ present)
Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Guayana (Type). 7 collections studied from the Guayana Highland of E. Bolivar, Venezuela and Guayana.