Monographs Details:
Authority:

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

Bromeliaceae
Synonyms:

Aechmea spicata Mart., Bromelia thyrsiflora Willd., Billbergia mertensii (M.Meyer) Miq., Bromelia mertensii M.Meyer, Aechmea thyrsiflora (Willd. ex Schult. & Schult.f.) Schltdl., Aechmea mucroniflora Hook., Hoplophytum mucroniflorum (Hook.) Beer, Hoplophytum spicatum (Mart. & Schult.f.) Beer, Hoplophytum mertensii (M.Meyer) Beer, Hohenbergia mertensii (G.Mey.) Baker, Hohenbergia martii Baker, Hohenbergia mucroniflora (Hook.) Baker, Aechmea wullschlaegeliana Mez, Aechmea humilis Mez
Description:

Description - Plant very variable, 2-8 dm high. Leaves rather few, rosulate, to 7 dm long, sometimes exceeding the inflorescence, covered with white appressed scales especially beneath; sheaths large, usually distinct, sometimes purplish, entire; blades ligulate, acute, pungent, 1.5-8 cm wide, green, laxly serrate with dark nearly straight spines 1-6 mm long. Scape usually erect, slender; scape-bracts lanceolate, acute, serrulate, bright rose, the upper spreading and massed beneath the inflorescence. Inflorescence bipinnate, many-flowered, terete, lax to dense, wholly fertile, to 35 cm long but often much shorter, 3-5 cm in diameter, white-flocculose, soon glabrous; lower primary bracts like the scape-bracts, the others smaller than the floral bracts; spikes spreading, densely 2-8-flowered. Floral bracts very broadly ovate or subreniform, enfolding most of the ovary, 5 mm long, mucronate, entire; flowers distichous, suberect, to 13 mm long. Sepals free, strongly asymmetric, to 4 mm long, mucronate; petals ligulate, mucronate, yellow or red, bearing 2 oblong scales at base; ovary ellipsoid, epigynous tube distinct; placentae apical; ovules caudate. Fruit much enlarged from the ovary, blue.

Distribution:

Colombia South America| Nariño Colombia South America| Meta Colombia South America| Vaupés Colombia South America| Caquetá Colombia South America| Amazonas Colombia South America| Venezuela South America| Delta Amacuro Venezuela South America| Anzoátegui Venezuela South America| Bolívar Venezuela South America| Trinidad and Tobago South America| Guyana South America| Demerara Guyana South America| Berbice Guyana South America| Essequibo Guyana South America| Suriname South America| French Guiana South America| Ecuador South America| Napo Ecuador South America| Peru South America| San Martín Peru South America| Loreto Peru South America| Brazil South America| Roraima Brazil South America| Amazonas Brazil South America| Rondônia Brazil South America| Acre Brazil South America| Amapá Brazil South America| Pará Brazil South America| Pernambuco Brazil South America| Alagoas Brazil South America| Bahia Brazil South America| Mato Grosso Brazil South America|

Common Names:

Güicundo