Puya alpestris (Poepp.) Gay
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Authority
Smith, Lyman B. & Downs, Robert J. 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 14 (1): 1-658. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Bromeliaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
TYPE. Poeppig 891 in part (lectotype, BM, the original holotype, W, having been destroyed), Cuesta del Prado, near Antuco, Bio Bio Chile.
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Synonyms
Pourretia alpestris (Poepp.) Gay, Puya whytei Hook.
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Description
Description - Caudex prostrate, branched; flowering shoot 1.2-1.5 m high. Leaves relatively few in each rosette, arched-recurving, 6 dm long; blades 15-25 mm wide, glabrous and bright green above, covered beneath with a dense coating of white scales, the marginal spines very lax, uncinate, 4 mm long. Scape stout; scape-bracts broadly oblong, reflexed, thin, more or less deciduous. Inflorescence sparsely and rather laxly bipinnate from 18-20 or much fewer branches, pyramidal; primary bracts like the upper scape-bracts, much shorter than the axillary branches; racemes subsessile, to 2 dm long, rather laxly flowering on the lower half or third, sterile on the remainder with numerous reduced bracts. Floral bracts elliptic, acute, much exceeded by the sepals at anthesis, membranaceous; pedicels slender, 10 mm long. Sepals narrowly oblong, acute or obtuse, ca 20-25 mm long; petals elliptic, obtuse, ca 5 cm long, blue-green, naked, glabrous; stamens and pistil included.
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Distribution
Dry slopes, south central Chile.
Chile South America| Concepcion Chile South America|