Pitcairnia patentiflora var. armata L.B.Sm.

  • Authority

    Smith, Lyman B. & Downs, Robert J. 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 14 (1): 1-658. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Bromeliaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Pitcairnia patentiflora var. armata L.B.Sm.

  • Type

    TYPE. Gaillard 176 (holotype, P ?, n v), San Fernando de Atabapo, upper Río Orinoco, Amazonas, Venezuela.

  • Synonyms

    Pitcairnia cinerea L.B.Sm.

  • Description

    Description - Plant stemless, flowering 3-6 dm high. Leaves all alike, bulbous-rosulate, ca. 3 dm long; sheaths broadly ovate, 15 mm long, thick-coriaceous, inflated; blades arched-recurving, linear, long-attenuate, 10 mm wide, coriaceous, laxly serrate with slender spreading spines 3 mm long, sparsely lepidote and soon glabrous above, covered with appressed cinereous scales beneath. Scape erect, 3.5 mm in diameter, cinereous-lepidote, soon glabrous; lowest scape-bracts foliaceous, much exceeding the internodes, the highest very narrowly triangular, small, much shorter than the internodes, entire. Inflorescence laxly few-branched or simple, very sparsely lepidote; primary bracts like the upper scape-bracts, much shorter than the branches; branches divergent, subdensely flowered, to 6 cm long. Floral bracts broadly elliptic, apiculate, 3-4 mm long, thin; flowers divergent, sessile. Sepals narrowly subtriangular, asymmetrically acute, 15-18 mm long, coriaceous, alate-carinate at base; petals narrow, 25 mm long, naked, minutely denticulate, pale green; stamens and style included; ovary 2/3 superior, the inferior part obconic, 6-alate; ovules alate.

  • Discussion

    DISTRIBUTION. Terrestrial and on igneous rock, 90-200 m alt, Amazonas, Venezuela. VENEZUELA. AMAZONAS: Savanna El Mata, El Tigre, upper Río Orinoco, 21 Jun 1940, L. Williams 13407 (VEN); middle and upper Río Orinoco, Pannier & Schwabe 937-A (VEN); Salto Coro-Coro, Cano Avatapare, Cerro Yutaje, 29 Jan 1953, Maguire 35026 (NY, US); Palomal, south of Puerto Ayacucho, 9 Nov 1953, Maguire, Wurdack & Bunting 36094 (NY, US).

  • Distribution

    Terrestrial and on igneous rock, 90-200 m alt, Amazonas, Venezuela.

    Venezuela South America| Amazonas Venezuela South America|