Puya pygmaea L.B.Sm.
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Authority
Smith, Lyman B. & Downs, Robert J. 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 14 (1): 1-658. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Bromeliaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
TYPE. Camp E-2236 (holotype, US; isotype, NY), solitary and usually scattered in open paramo, Páramo de Tinajillas, 30-50 km south of Cuenca, Azuay, Ecuador, 3300-3450 m alt, 17 Mar 1945.
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Description
Description - Plant stemless, flowering 3 dm high. Leaves many, rosulate, to 17 cm long; sheaths small, suborbicular, serrulate, sparsely lepidote; blades 15 mm wide at base, glabrous and lustrous above, densely appressed-white-lepidote beneath, laxly serrate with slender curved brown spines 2.5 mm long. Scape slender but appearing almost as stout as the inflorescence on account of the bracts; scape-bracts very densely imbricate, elliptic, linear-laminate or acuminate, papyraceous when dry, strongly nerved, soon glabrous. Inflorescence subsimple, very densely strobilate, ellipsoid, 5 cm long, 2.5 cm in diameter, white-lanate; primary bracts like the scape-bracts but smaller and more vestite, much exceeding the sepals, subentire, red; branches abortive with the flowers fascicled or solitary. Floral bracts elliptic, acute, carinate, membranaceous, exceeding the sepals; pedicels short but slender. Sepals elliptic, obtuse, 18 mm long, thin; petals 3 cm long, greenish blue.
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Distribution
Known from the type collection only.
Ecuador South America| Azuay Ecuador South America|