Vriesea morrenii Wawra

  • Authority

    Smith, Lyman B. & Downs, Robert J. 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 14 (2): 663-1492. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Bromeliaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Vriesea morrenii Wawra

  • Type

    Type. Wawra 11-72 (holotype W n v lost, neotype B, B photo 1249/18), Cachoeria de Itamarati, Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. See also the illustrations in Wawra, It. Sax.-Cob. 1: 166, pls. 30, 37, fig. B. 1883.

  • Synonyms

    Vriesea morrenii var. disticha Wawra, Tillandsia morrenii (Wawra) Baker

  • Description

    Deprecated: mb_convert_encoding(): Handling HTML entities via mbstring is deprecated; use htmlspecialchars, htmlentities, or mb_encode_numericentity/mb_decode_numericentity instead in /home/emu/nybgweb/www-dev/htdocs/science-dev/wp-content/themes/nybgscience/lib/VHMonographsDetails.php on line 179

    Description - Plant flowering 8 dm high. Leaves many in a funnelform rosette, 5 dm long, pale green marked with irregular transverse dark green lines; sheaths ample, dark castaneous toward base; blades ligulate, broadly rounded and apiculate, to 95 mm wide, soon glabrous. Scape short, nearly hidden by the leaves, stout; scape-bracts equaling or slightly exceeding the internodes, the upper ones broadly ovate, subacute. Inflorescence laxly bipinnate, about 8-branched, many-flowered, 4-6 dm long, 3 dm in diameter; primary bracts broadly ovate, acute, shorter than the sterile bases of the branches, pale yellow; racemes suberect, subequal, to 26 cm long, subdensely 10-20-flowered, the sterile base with 2 bracts. Floral bracts more or less secund with the flowers and enfolding their bases, broadly subelliptic, 2-3 cm long, obtuse, much exceeded by the sepals, convex, ecarinate, coriaceous, rose or brown; flowers divergent, secund; pedicels stout, to 10 mm long. Sepals lanceolate, acute, 3 cm long, coriaceous, pale yellow; petals ligulate, 45 mm long, greenish yellow, bearing 2 ovate scales; stamens included; filaments attenuate. Capsule fusiform, 4 cm long.

  • Discussion

    Edmundo Pereira in Rio de Janeiro has living material with wholly naked petals but otherwise indistinguishable from Vriesea morrenii. For the present I am regarding this as a reversion to a more primitive state.

  • Distribution

    Epiphytic in forest, 765-1000 m alt, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro State in eastern Brazil.

    Brazil South America| Espirito Santo Brazil South America| Minas Gerais Brazil South America| Rio de Janeiro Brazil South America|