Tillandsia demissa L.B.Sm.

  • Authority

    Smith, Lyman B. & Downs, Robert J. 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 14 (2): 663-1492. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Bromeliaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Tillandsia demissa L.B.Sm.

  • Type

    Type. Foster 2624 (holotype US), km 120 to 140, Oña to Zaraguro, Loja, Ecuador, 4 Dec 1948.

  • Description

    Description - Plant caulescent with a branched caudex covered with the remains of old leaves, the flowering shoot 2 m long when extended. Leaves many in a spreading rosette at the top of the caudex, 9-12 dm long, obscurely punctulate-lepidote; sheaths ample, 3 dm long; blades ligulate, acuminate, flat, 10 cm wide, green. Scape decurved, short, hidden by the leaves; scape-bracts subfoliaceous, densely imbricate. Inflorescence densely bipinnate, slenderly cylindric, green, glaucous; primary bracts broadly ovate with a foliaceous blade, exceeding the spikes, erect, imbricate; spikes elliptic-oblong, 15 cm long including the short stout sterile base, 4 cm wide, strongly complanate, densely 17-flowered. Floral bracts suborbicular, equaling the sepals, carinate and minutely incurved at apex, coriaceous, even; flowers subsessile. Sepals free, elliptic, obtuse, 30 mm long, the posterior carinate; petal-blades 15 mm long, lavender; stamens included. Capsules stout, barely exceeding the sepals.

  • Distribution

    Terrestrial or saxicolous on canyon walls, 2100 m alt, Loja, Ecuador.

    Ecuador South America| Loja Ecuador South America|