Puya glomerifera Mez & Sodiro

  • Authority

    Smith, Lyman B. & Downs, Robert J. 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 14 (1): 1-658. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Bromeliaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Puya glomerifera Mez & Sodiro

  • Type

    TYPE. Sodiro P-2 (holotype, B), Mount Pichincha and Mount Huamani, Ecuador.

  • Synonyms

    Puya asplundii L.B.Sm.

  • Description

    Description - Plant caulescent, flowering shoot 1.5-2 m high. Leaves 6 dm long; sheaths short, the lower ones suborbicular, toward apex membranaceous-margined and laciniate-spinulose, covered with a membrane of whitish scales especially on the back, becoming glabrous; blades 20 mm wide, lustrous, and pale green, very densely white- or whitish-lepidote beneath, above glabrous, serrate with antrorse to retrorse spines 5-7 mm long. Scape erect, stout, terete, glabrous; lower scape-bracts with short triangular blades, middle and upper bladeless, lax, glabrous. Inflorescence densely bipinnate, sceptriform, 35 cm long, 7 cm in diameter, densely brown-lanate; primary bracts triangular from a broadly ovate base, serrulate, recurved or revolute-reflexed and glabrate toward apex; spikes sessile or subsessile, globose to broadly ellipsoid, 6-8 cm long, 35 mm in diameter, barely exceeding the primary bracts, densely 10-flowered. Floral bracts densely imbricate, very broadly obovate, rounded at apex, 25-35 mm long, 22 mm wide, slightly to much shorter than the sepals, entire, inflated, ecarinate, coriaceous, glabrous within; pedicels stout, to 7 mm long; flowers very stout; sepals broadly obovate, obtuse, slightly asymmetric, 25 mm long, 15 mm wide, thick-coriaceous; petals over 5 cm long, obtuse, naked, green.

  • Common Names

    Achupalla

  • Distribution

    Páramo, rocky slopes, and cleared land, 1750-3600 m alt, Andean Ecuador.

    Ecuador South America| Pichincha Ecuador South America| Tungurahua Ecuador South America| Cañar Ecuador South America| Azuay Ecuador South America|