Dyckia leptostachya Baker

  • Authority

    Smith, Lyman B. & Downs, Robert J. 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 14 (1): 1-658. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Bromeliaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Dyckia leptostachya Baker

  • Type

    TYPE. Kew Hortus (holotype, K; photo, GH), without exact locality, Parana, Brazil, flowered Aug 1884.

  • Synonyms

    Dyckia conspicua Mez, Dyckia boliviensis Mez, Dyckia hassleri Mez, Dyckia orobanchoides Mez, Dyckia rojasii Mez, Dyckia apensis Mez, Dyckia longifolia Mez, Dyckia remotiflora var. montevidensis (K.Koch) L.B.Sm.

  • Description

    Description - Plant flowering 5-15 dm high, very variable but with a gradual transition between the extremes. Leaves 4-10 dm long; sheaths persistent and forming a thick bulb, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 4 cm wide; blades arching, narrowly triangular, long-attenuate, 1-3 cm wide, densely white-lepidote on both faces or soon glabrous above, laxly repand-serrate with slender curved spines 3-4.5 mm long. Scape very slender, minutely lepidote or glabrous; scape-bracts small, many times shorter than the internodes, very broadly ovate, apiculate, entire. Inflorescence simple or few-branched, 12-16 cm long; axis sparsely lepidote or glabrous; primary bracts inconspicuous. Floral bracts spreading, very broadly ovate, abruptly contracted to an acuminate point, 3-8(-12) mm long, much exceeded by the sepals; flowers suberect to spreading, 13-23 mm long, on very short stout pedicels. Sepals broadly ovate, obtuse, 6-12 mm long, more or less carinate, even, soon glabrous; petals erect, red-orange, the blade broad, obtuse or emarginate, minutely crenulate; stamens usually exserted, filaments free above the common tube with the petals, the anthers acute, mucronate, recurved; style distinct and sometimes long or partially divided.

  • Discussion

    According to T. M. Pedersen, plants in the same colony of Dyckia leptostachya can have a simple or compound inflorescence according to individual vigor.

  • Distribution

    Dry fields or open scrub (cerrado), 10-[800] m alt, western and southern Brazil, southeastern Bolivia, Paraguay, and northeastern Argentina.

    Brazil South America| Minas Gerais Brazil South America| Mato Grosso Brazil South America| Paraná Brazil South America| Santa Catarina Brazil South America| Rio Grande do Sul Brazil South America| Paraguay South America| Argentina South America| Chaco Argentina South America| Corrientes Argentina South America| Entre Ríos Argentina South America|