Pitcairnia venezuelana L.B.Sm. & Steyerm.
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Authority
Smith, Lyman B. & Downs, Robert J. 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 14 (1): 1-658. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Bromeliaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
TYPE. Steyermark & Rabe 96472 (holotype, US; isotype, VEN), Agua Blanca, 22 km northeast of Acarigua, Portuguesa, Venezuela, 24 Aug 1966.
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Description
Description - Plant caulescent, flowering 60-75 cm high. Leaves fasciculate at the apex of the stem, all persistent, dimorphic, the outer with sheaths broadly ovate, dark castaneous, and blades reduced to small spinose-serrate spines; inner leaves 6 cm long, slightly narrowed above the large sheath, entire; blades linear, long-attenuate, 12-18 mm wide, glabrous above, covered beneath with a white membrane of fused scales. Scape erect, slender, white-lepidote becoming glabrous; scape-bracts erect, the lower subfoliaceous, the upper narrowly triangular, long-attenuate, nearly equaling to exceeding the internodes. Inflorescence laxly racemose, to 32 cm long, finely white-flocculose at anthesis. Floral bracts like the upper scape-bracts, exceeding the pedicels; pedicels divergent, 15-22 mm long, slender. Sepals oblong, subtruncate and apiculate, 14-20 mm long; petals to 5 cm long, orange (! Trujillo), appendaged; ovary 3/5 superior; ovules caudate.
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Distribution
Bluffs and semiarid slopes, 190 m alt, northwestern Venezuela.
Venezuela South America| Lara Venezuela South America|