Bromelia pinguin L.

Title

Bromelia pinguin L.

Authors

Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

Scientific Name

Bromelia pinguin L.

Description

Flora Borinqueña

Bromelia Pinguin

Maya Pinguin

Family Bromeliaceae

Pine-apple Family

Bromelia Pinguin Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 285. 1753. Much planted for hedges, growing naturally in thickets, occasionally in waste grounds, this formidably armed, herbaceous plant is distributed nearly all over tropical America, and common in Porto Rico. The long, stiff, prickly margined and spine-tipped leaves interlocking on adjacent plants, form practically impassible barriers. Pinuela is another Spanish name. The rather large, white or pinkish flowers are clusterd on a stout, upright stalk, and followed by large, yellow, roughened, fleshy fruits. Only one species of Bromelia grows in Porto Rico. Bromelia, a genus accepted by Linnaeus from the writings of Plumier, commemorates Olans Bromel, a physician and botanist of Gothenberg, borne in 1639, died in 1705. About 25 species are included, the one here illustrated typical. They are terrestrial herbs, propagating by stolons, as well as seeds; their long, prickly, spinulose leaves form a basal tuft. The flowers are perfect, and clustered, with 3 sepals, 3 petals, 6 stamens and a 3-celled ovary topped by a stout 3-sided narrow stigmas. The fleshy, berry-like fruit contains many, flat, wingless seeds. Bromelia Pinguin (name probably aboriginal) has many, light-green, long-alternate leaves from 1 to 2 meters long, and from 2 to 4 centimeters wide, their margins armed with hooked prickles from 5 to 10 millimeters long, and a stout, terminal spine. The flowers are several or many in a white-floccose cluster at the top of a stalk shorter than the leaves, each subtended by a narrow bractlet from 5 to 25 millimeters long; the sepals are triangular, awl-shaped; the narrow petals are about 3 centimeters long, with yellow anthers. The ovoid, beaked fruit is 3 or 4 centimeters long.