Puya clava-herculis Mez & Sodiro

  • Authority

    Smith, Lyman B. 1957. The Bromeliaceae of Colombia. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 33: i-v, 1-311.

  • Family

    Bromeliaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Puya clava-herculis Mez & Sodiro

  • Description

    Description - Stem 4 cm. in diameter; leaves 3-4 dm. long, sheaths short, more or less ovate, blades narrowly triangular, pungent, 25 mm. wide, glabrous above, densely white-lepidote between the nerves beneath, laxly serrate with stout mostly antrorse dark brown spines 6-9 mm. long; scape erect, very stout; scape-bracts densely imbricate, densely lanate, the lower with reflexed foliaceous blades; inflorescence bipinnate, very densely ellipsoid or subcylindric, 17 cm. long, 10 cm. in diameter, densely lanate; primary bracts lanceolate, acuminate, entire, their apices exceeding the branches and exserted from the wool of the inflorescence; branches short with 2-4 subfasciculate flowers; floral bracts like the primary bracts but smaller, exceeding the sepals; pedicels short and stout but distinct; sepals acute, 25-27 mm. long, coriaceous; petals blue-green.