Androlepis skinneri (K.Koch) Brongn.

  • Authority

    Smith, Lyman B. & Downs, Robert J. 1979. Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 14 (3): 1493-2142. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Bromeliaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Androlepis skinneri (K.Koch) Brongn.

  • Type

    Type. Berlin Hortus s n (holotype, B, n v; isotypes, K, LE, LG fide Mez), doubtfully referred to Mexico.

  • Synonyms

    Pothuava skinneri K.Koch, Aechmea leucostachys Baker, Aechmea skinneri Baker, Aechmea donnell-smithii Baker, Billbergia skinneri K.Koch, Pothuava skinneri K.Koch

  • Description

    Description - Plant flowering 1-2 m high. Leaves to 20, 1-1.8 m long; sheaths large, suborbicular, dark brown, very closely and finely brown-lepidote; blades ligulate, acute or acuminate, 4-8 cm wide, flat, involute-cuspidate, densely serrate with spines to 3 mm long, glabrous above, closely and finely pale-lepidote beneath. Scape stout, white-farinose; scape-bracts large, imbricate, lance-elliptic, acute, pungent, spinulose-serrate, stramineous, pale-lepidote. Inflorescence to ca. 1 m long, densely to laxly compound, narrowly pyramidal to cylindric, generally more richly branched and with more and smaller flowers in the functionally staminate plants, farinose; primary bracts narrowly triangular, entire, membranaceous, the lowest often longer than the axillary branches, the upper much reduced; branches spreading, well developed, the lower ones usually divided; spikes (staminate) distinctly longer than broad, usually lax, 4-5-flowered, or (pistillate) short, suberect, subglobosely 1-5-flowered. Floral bracts minute, shorter than the ovary, ovate or triangular, acuminate, pungent; flowers (staminate) to 14 mm long, or (pistillate) to 20 mm long. Sepals broadly triangular with a large wing, 5-6 mm long, strongly convex, thick, coriaceous, green, farinose, soon glabrous; petals erect at anthesis, elliptic, 1 cm long, flavous; ovary (staminate) reduced, or (pistillate) stoutly ovoid or cylindric, much enlarged in fruit.

  • Common Names

    Wild pine

  • Distribution

    Epiphytic, from near sea level to 920 m alt, Guatemala to Costa Rica.

    Guatemala Central America| Petén Guatemala Central America| Izabal Guatemala Central America| Belize Central America| Cayo Belize Central America| Toledo Belize Central America| Honduras Central America| Costa Rica South America| Alajuela Costa Rica Central America| Heredia Costa Rica Central America| Cartago Costa Rica Central America|