Aechmea paniculigera (Sw.) Griseb.
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Authority
Smith, Lyman B. & Downs, Robert J. 1979. Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 14 (3): 1493-2142. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Bromeliaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type. Swartz (holotype, S), Jamaica.
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Synonyms
Bromelia paniculigera Sw., Bromelia paniculata J.F.Gmel., Bromelia latifolia Willd. ex Schult.f., Aechmea paniculata Ruiz & Pav., Hohenbergia paniculigera (Sw.) Baker, Aechmea columnaris André, Aechmea latifolia (Willd. & Schult.f.) Klotzsch ex Baker, Aechmea mertensii (G.Mey.) Schult. & Schult.f., Aechmea chromatica C.H.Wright, Bromelia paniculigera Sw.
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Description
Description - Plant flowering 7-25 dm high. Leaves 20-25 in a dense rosette, 1-2 m long, longer or shorter than the inflorescence; sheaths suborbicular, 2 dm in diameter; blades ligulate, 8 cm wide, broadly rounded, mucronate, armed with coarse teeth up to 5 mm long, thick, coriaceous, deep green, evenly vestite with coarse white scales. Scape erect, 1 cm or more in diameter, sparsely subfarinose-lepidote; scape-bracts erect to reflexed, the uppermost forming a spreading coma beneath the inflorescence, ample, 2 dm long, bright purple, entire or sparsely denticulate. Inflorescence many-flowered, densely cylindric, acute, paniculate, to 34 cm long, 9 cm in diameter; axes green, subfarinose-lepidote; lower primary bracts like the scape-bracts but much narrower, exceeding the axillary branches, the upper narrowly triangular, acuminate, not reaching even the lowest flower of the spike; all the branches fertile throughout, 2-flowered or 3-flowered or rarely more, the lower ones fascicled, the upper single; rhachis slender, geniculate. Floral bracts narrowly triangular-ovate, 2.5 mm long, entire, margins free from the rhachis; flowers sessile, erect. Sepals strongly asymmetric, 7 mm long including the stout, spreading, 2 mm long mucro, free, glabrous, bluish-white toward the base, reddish toward the apex; petals 14 mm long, obscurely mucronulate, pale-violet, bearing 2 fimbriate scales 3 mm above the base; stamens much shorter than the petals, the filaments of the second series highly adnate to the petals, the anthers linear, acute, 3.5 mm long; pollen biporate; pistil exceeding the stamens but shorter than the petals, very sparsely furfuraceous; ovary 5 mm long; epigynous tube short but distinct; placentae subapical; ovules distinctly caudate.
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Distribution
Epiphytic and saxicolous, 900-1600 m alt, Jamaica, Colombia, Venezuela.
Jamaica South America| Saint Elizabeth Jamaica South America| Colombia South America| Cundinamarca Colombia South America| Venezuela South America| Distrito Federal Venezuela South America|