Catopsis nitida (Hook.) Griseb.

  • 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

    Catopsis nitida (Hook.) Griseb.

  • Type

    Type. Wiles s n in Liverpool Botanic Garden (holotype n v) mountains of Jamaica. In the absence of a type specimen the species is well typified by the original description and plate.

  • Synonyms

    Catopsis sessiliflora (Ruiz & Pav.) Mez, Catopsis nutans (Sw.) Griseb., Tillandsia nitida Hook., Tussacia nitida (Hook.) Beer, Tussacia cornucopia Beer, Pogospermum nitidum (Hook.) Brongn., Catopsis nutans (Sw.) Griseb., Catopsis sessiliflora (Ruiz & Pav.) Mez, Pogospermum inconspicuum Brongn., Catopsis inconspicua 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 to 45 cm high. Leaves few in an elongate cylindrical rosette, to 3 dm long, narrowly scarious-margined, not at all cretaceous, very inconspicuously punctulate-lepidote; sheaths very indistinct, about as long as the blades but scarcely wider; blades ligulate, rounded-apiculate, flat, to 4 cm wide. Scape erect or somewhat curved, shorter or longer than the leaves, slender, glabrous; scape-bracts remote, erect and enfolding the scape, lance-ovate, obtuse and apiculate. Inflorescence laxly compound with simple or rarely divided branches, equaling or exceeding the leaves, 5-20 cm long, glabrous; primary bracts lanceolate, acute, much shorter than the usually naked sterile base of the axillary spikes; spikes divergent, 3-12 cm long, lax, to 15-flowered. Floral bracts broadly ovate, acute, distinctly shorter than the sepals; flowers perfect. Sepals strongly asymmetric with the left side broadly elliptic and the right side cuneate at the base, and at the apex expanded into a large wing which overtops the midnerve, 5-6 mm long, prominently nerved when dry but not wrinkled, subcoriaceous; petals elliptic, obtuse, yellowish-white, barely exserted; stamens unequal; style lacking.

  • Discussion

    Catopsis nitida was erroneously reported from Guiana (Suriname) on the basis of Kegel 864 which is C. sessiliflora.

  • Distribution

    Epiphytic in forest, 300-1830 m alt, southern Mexico, Central America, Greater Antilles.

    Mexico North America| Oaxaca Mexico North America| Chiapas Mexico North America| Guatemala Central America| Baja Verapaz Guatemala Central America| Honduras Central America| Comayagua Honduras Central America| Nicaragua Central America| Matagalpa Nicaragua Central America| Costa Rica South America| Guanacaste Costa Rica Central America| Alajuela Costa Rica Central America| San José Costa Rica Central America| Cartago Costa Rica Central America| Panama Central America| Chiriquí Panamá Central America| Cuba South America| Las Villas Cuba West Indies| Oriente Cuba South America| Jamaica South America| Portland Jamaica South America| Saint Thomas Jamaica South America| Saint Andrew Jamaica South America| Saint Ann Jamaica South America| Clarendon Jamaica South America| Manchester Jamaica South America| Saint James Jamaica South America| Hanover Jamaica South America| Haiti South America| Dominican Republic South America| Puerto Rico South America| Maricao Puerto Rico South America|