Catopsis nutans (Sw.) Griseb.
-
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
-
Description
Description - Plant flowering 14-40 cm high. Leaves about 10 in a subfasciculate rosette, erect or curving outward, to 24 cm long, obscurely punctulate-lepidote, cretaceous, especially toward the base; sheaths elliptic, about half as long as the blades; blades subtriangular, acuminate, 25 mm wide. Scape erect to decurved; scape-bracts erect, lanceolate or elliptic, acuminate, from much shorter to slightly longer than the internodes. Inflorescence mostly branched in the staminate plants, mostly simple in the pistillate or perfect; primary bracts like the scape-bracts, shorter than the sterile naked base of the spike; spikes laxly 3-15-flowered, to 2 dm long; rhachis nearly or quite straight, angled, glabrous. Floral bracts broadly ovate or elliptic, obtuse or broadly acute, the lower ones barely shorter than the sepals, the upper much shorter; flowers sessile, erect to spreading, perfect or functionally unisexual and dimorphic (only in Mexico and Central America so far as known). Sepals strongly asymmetric, broadly elliptic, obtuse, submembranaceous, prominently nerved, glabrous, the staminate to 12 mm long, the pistillate to 15 mm; petals ligulate with flaring blade, broadly acute or obtuse, 20 mm long, bright yellow; stamens unequal, the first series much longer than the second; anthers sagittate; ovary stoutly ovoid; style very short but distinct. Capsule ovoid, long-beaked, 15-20 mm long.