Vriesea

  • Authority

    Smith, Lyman B. 1967. Bromeliaceae of the Guayana Highland. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 14: 15-68.

  • Family

    Bromeliaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Vriesea

  • Description

    Species Description - Herbs, mostly large, showy and epiphytic; leaves densely rosulate, entire; often banded or mottled; inflorescence scapose, simple or compound; primary bracts from small and inconspicuous to large and showy and more or less covering the axillary branches; spikes usually distichous-flowered; floral bracts conspicuous, enfolding or concealing the bases of the flowers; flowers subsessile to slenderly pedicellate; sepals usually free; petals free or connate in a short tube that is much exceeded by the sepals, appendaged, the appndages almost always paired; ovary superior or very slightly inferior; style elongate; ovules many, usually caudate; seeds fusiform, with a long straight basal coma.

  • Discussion

    pl. 10.

    Hexalepis Raf. Fl. Tellur. 4: 24. 1838.

    Type species: T psittacina (Hook.) Lindl. (Tillandsia psittacina Hook.).

  • Distribution

    Over 200 species from Mexico and the West Indies to Argentina. Largely epiphytic in forest.

    West Indies| South America| Central America|