Vriesea carinata Wawra

  • Authority

    Smith, Lyman B. & Downs, Robert J. 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 14 (2): 663-1492. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Bromeliaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Vriesea carinata Wawra

  • Type

    Type. Wawra 1-443 (holotype W lost), Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

  • Synonyms

    Vriesea brachystachys Regel, Vriesea psittacina var. brachystachys (Regel) E.Morren, Vriesea psittacina var. carinata (Wawra) E.Morren, Tillandsia carinata (Wawra) Baker, Tillandsia psittacina E. Norton

  • Description

    Description - Plant flowering typically 24-36 cm high, propagating by very short erect shoots. Leaves some 12-24 in a funnelform rosette, 15-27 cm long, so sparsely and minutely lepidote as to appear glabrous; sheaths broadly elliptic, distinct, pale green and usually tinged with red; blades ligulate, broadly acute or sometimes rounded and apiculate, 14-20 (-32) mm wide, flat, thin, pale green. Scape erect or ascending, very slender; scape-bracts erect and closely enfolding the scape, slighdy longer or shorter than the internodes, elliptic, apiculate, membranaceous, pale green or purplish or reddish. Inflorescence usually exceeding the leaves, simple, dense or subdense, few-flowered, nearly as broad as long, oblong with a triangular-retuse apex, strongly compressed, glabrous; rhachis geniculate, slender, the internodes very short. Floral bracts many times longer than the internodes but spreading and so narrow that they generally do not cover the rhachis, subtriangular, 30-36(-44) mm long, usually exceeding the sepals, 12-16 mm wide, sharply carinate, strongly incurved toward apex, membranaceous, apex and margins yellow or green and the rest usually bright red; pedicels very short. Sepals sublanceolate, rounded and apiculate, ca 30 mm long, carinate; petals linear, obtuse, 35-45(-60) mm long, yellow except the green apex, bearing 2 large obtuse scales at base; stamens and style exserted. Capsule shorter than the sepals.

  • Discussion

    Vriesea carinata has made both natural and artificial hybrids with a great number of species.

  • Distribution

    Epiphytic or terrestrial in forest, 20-900 m alt, eastern Brazil from Bahia to Rio Grande do Sul.

    Brazil South America| Bahia Brazil South America| Espirito Santo Brazil South America| Rio de Janeiro Brazil South America| Guanabara Brazil South America| São Paulo Brazil South America| Paraná Brazil South America| Santa Catarina Brazil South America| Rio Grande do Sul Brazil South America|