Tillandsia dura Baker

  • 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

    Tillandsia dura Baker

  • Type

    Type. Glaziou 16460 (holotype K, GH photo), Pico da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, Guanabara, Brazil.

  • Synonyms

    Tillandsia linearis Vell.

  • Description

    Description - Plant flowering 2-4 dm long; roots present even in age; stem almost always simple, from very short to 14 cm long. Leaves very numerous, polystichous, strict or somewhat arching and often secund, 15-23 cm long, densely and finely appressed-lepidote, subglabrous above with age, chestnut-brown for all the sheath and much of the blade, the remainder gray-green when dry; sheaths ovate, scarcely more than 1 cm long, passing into the blade; blade narrowly triangular, to 11 mm wide but usually much narrower, subulate-attenuate, rigid. Scape distinct but usually much covered by the leaves, terminal, slender, erect or ascending; scape-bracts densely imbricate, ovate, thin, densely and finely appressed-lepidote, the median and basal ones with stiff foliaceous blades. Inflorescence always simple and distichous-flowered, linear, acute, strongly complanate, 7-13 cm long, 10-14 mm wide, 14-26-flowered; rhachis slightly geniculate, sulcate, angled, excavated next the flowers, glabrous. Floral bracts erect, strongly imbricate, often 3 times the length of the internodes, but so narrow as partially to expose the rhachis, ovate, acute, apiculate, 17-20 mm long, exceeding the sepals, subchartaceous, strongly nerved, densely appressed-lepidote toward apex, grooved at base, rounded or carinate toward apex, straight or slightly incurved; flowers subsessile. Sepals free or equally short-connate or at times the posterior ones connate for about half their length, 8-11 mm long, oblong-lanceolate, acute, strongly nerved, glabrous, the posterior ones carinate; petals ligulate, blue, 17 mm long; stamens included; anthers linear, acute, 5 mm long, dorsifixed 1/4-3/5 of their length from the base; pistil exceeding the stamens; ovary slenderly ovoid.

  • Distribution

    Epiphytic in rainforest, from near sea level to 800 m alt, southeastern Brazil.

    Brazil South America| Guanabara Brazil South America| São Paulo Brazil South America| Santa Catarina Brazil South America|