Pitcairnia meridensis Mez ex Klotzsch
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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. Moritz 1233 (lectotype, B; photo 11367, F; isotype, BM), alpine heights, Merida, Venezuela.
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Synonyms
Pitcairnia integrifolia Ker Gawl., Hepetis meridensis (Mez ex Klotzsch) Mez
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Description
Description - Plant stemless, flowering 5 dm or slightly higher. Leaves distichous, all alike, persistent, fasciculate, entire; sheaths narrowly triangular, pale brown, sparsely lepidote; petioles 3 dm long, deeply channeled; blades linear-lanceolate, long-attenuate, to almost 1 m long, 20 mm wide, sparsely lepidote or glabrous beneath. Scape erect, stout, floccose becoming completely glabrous; scape-bracts much shorter than the internodes, narrowly triangular, floccose or glabrate. Inflorescence densely racemose, short-cylindric, truncate, 15 cm long, 15 cm in diameter including the flowers; rhachis stout, conspicuously sulcate, tomentulose-lepidote. Floral bracts reflexed, lanceolate, 7 mm long, much shorter than the pedicels, tomentulose, sometimes subverticillate about the rhachis; flowers bright red; pedicels all about 25 mm long, reflexed then curved-ascending and bearing the flowers vertically, glabrous. Sepals narrowly triangular, attenuate, to 32 mm long, 6 mm wide, ecarinate, asymmetric with a broad hyaline margin, glabrous or subglabrous; petals broadly subacute, 64 mm long, bearing a large elliptic crenate scale; stamens included; ovary almost completely superior; ovules short-caudate.
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Distribution
Terrestrial on paramo or in dwarf forest, 2500-2800 m alt, Merida, Venezuela.
Venezuela South America| Mérida Venezuela South America|