Tillandsia elongata Kunth
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Authority
Smith, Lyman B. & Downs, Robert J. 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 14 (2): 663-1492. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Bromeliaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Description - Plant stemless, flowering 1-2 m high. Leaves many in a utriculate rosette, to 8 dm long, densely punctulate-lepidote; sheaths ovate, large, not inflated; blades recurving, subulate-attenuate, 4 cm wide. Scape erect, 10-15 mm in diameter; scape-bracts imbricate, the lower foliaceous with long reflexed blades, the upper ovate and usually apiculate or with short filiform erect blades. Inflorescence lax, bipinnate or sometimes subtripinnate; primary bracts like the upper scape-bracts, much shorter than the curved-ascending branches; spikes linear, complanate, 12 mm wide, the sterile base bracteate; rhachis nearly straight, slender, angled, glabrous. Floral bracts erect, usually 2-3 times as long as the internodes but exposing the rhachis, narrowly ovate, obtuse or apiculate, inrolled at apex, 18-20 mm long, exceeding the sepals, subchartaceous, nerved, glabrous; flowers subsessile. Sepals narrowly elliptic, obtuse, 11-13 mm long, glabrous, nerved, the posterior carinate; petals 25 mm long, blue or lilac; stamens included. Capsule slenderly cylindric, 3-4 cm long.