Pitcairnia caricifolia Mart. & Schult.f.
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Authority
Smith, Lyman B. 1957. The Bromeliaceae of Colombia. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 33: i-v, 1-311.
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Family
Bromeliaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Description - Proliferating by short shoots; stem very short; leaves numerous, all alike, 6-8 dm. long, very slightly narrowed above the sheaths, finely and laxly serrulate to subcntire, the sheaths narrowly ovate, inconspicuous, dark castaneous toward base, blades sublinear, 6-13 mm. wide, filiform-acuminate, glabrous above, covered beneath with a pale membrane of coalesced scales; scape erect, slender, 25-45 cm. long, white-furfuraceous at first; scape-bracts erect, lepidote, the lower foliaceous and imbricate, the upper lanceolate and rarely shorter than the internodes; inflorescence more or less secund, 10-15 cm. long, usually few-flowered, minutely white-lepidote; lower floral bracts narrowly lanceolate, filiform-acuminate, sometimes equaling the ovary, the upper ovate, barely exceeding or even shorter than the pedicels; flowers slender, subcrect at anthesis, usually spreading at maturity; sepals sublinear, acute, 15 mm. long, ecarinate, green, thin; petals 3-4 cm. long, red or orange to white, bearing a large scale; stamens about equaling the petals; ovary almost wholly inferior; capsule stout, to 2 cm. long; seeds narrowly winged.