Vriesea imperialis Carrière
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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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Type
Type. Hortus Paris Museum s n (holotype P (?), n v, doubtfully preserved), Brazil.
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Synonyms
Vriesea gigantea Gaudich., Vriesea glaziouiana Carrière, Vriesea hillegeeriana Baker, Tillandsia regina Vell., Alcantarea imperialis (Carrière) Harms
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Description
Description - Plant flowering 3-5 m high; stem erect, stout. Leaves many in a funnelform rosette, to 15 dm long; sheaths very broadly elliptic, 25 cm wide, densely and minutely dark-lepidote; blades ligulate, acute or acuminate, 12 cm wide, wholly green or obscurely maculate toward base, glabrous above, minutely lepidote beneath. Scape erect, exceeding the leaves, ca 45 mm in diameter; scape-bracts suberect, densely imbricate, recurved toward apex. Inflorescence laxly bipinnate, slenderly pyramidal; primary bracts broadly ovate with a small narrow blade, about equaling the sterile bases of the branches; branches densely 10-50-flowered, suberect at the sterile base with 3-4 bracts, then spreading and decurved; rhachis more or less geniculate, the internodes 2-4 cm long. Floral bracts secund with the flowers, ovate, acute, about half as long as the sepals, carinate, incurved; flowers spreading, upwardly secund; pedicels obconic, stout, 1 cm long. Sepals elliptic, ca 4 cm long, 15 mm wide, ecarinate; petals over 10 cm long, linear, obtuse, white, bearing 2 large linear scales at base, flaccid and pendent at anthesis. Capsule slenderly ovoid, long-beaked, 55 mm long; seeds with coma at both ends.
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Distribution
Saxicolous on high cliffs, 1300 m alt, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil.
Brazil South America| Rio de Janeiro Brazil South America|