Pitcairnia microcalyx Baker
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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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Description
Description - Plant stemless, flowering about 1 m high. Leaves all alike, persistent, few, densely fasciculate, contracted above the sheath but not petiolate, entire; sheaths elongate, brownish at extreme base, tomentose-lepidote beneath; blades linear-lanceolate, long-attenuate to a firm apex, 8 dm long, 30 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely lepidote beneath. Scape erect, stout, pale-arachnoid becoming glabrous; scape-bracts narrowly triangular, entire, appressed, arachnoid or glabrate, the highest shorter than the internodes. Inflorescence densely racemose, ellipsoid or subcylindric, 15 cm long, 75 mm in diameter, many-flowered; rhachis stout. Floral bracts suberect, about equaling the pedicels, soft, arachnoid or lepidote; flowers suberect at anthesis, yellow or red; pedicels slender, 7 mm long. Sepals triangular or oblong, acuminate or subacute, 16 mm long, slightly or not at all carinate, hyaline-margined, sparsely lepidote or glabrous; petals ligulate, 44 mm long, arching-decurved after anthesis, bearing a small broadly truncate scale; stamens slightly exserted, anthers 7 mm long; ovary 2/3 superior; ovules caudate.