Bromelia balansae Mez

PLANTS OF SOUTH AMERICA
Collected by Thos. Morong, 1888-1890.
SI	Central Paraguay?	.
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NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
03854103
The New York Botanical Garden
Named by J. G. Baker,
Bromelia Pinguin, L., Sp. Pl., 285.
Asuncion '(341). December*
This plant has an immense rosette of numerous spine-tipped 1
leaves pointing in all directions, and bristling like so many lances, ;
some of them l|m, in length, beset down the sides with upwardly
hooked spines, forming a barrier which neither man nor "beast
attempts to break through. The central part of this rosette is of a
deep scarlet color, and can be seen from a long distance. Flowers
purplish or bluish, closely arranged about a fleshy caudex, 10-12
cm. thick and 15-20 cm. high. Fruit a succulent, edible berry, 3 or
4 cm. long and 2 or 3 cm. in width, looking somewhat like a fig.
The plant is known under the native name Garaguata, and is often
called the wild pinè-apple. It is a noted object in Paraguay, as the
leaves have been used time out of flûind by the natives for making
I fishing-nets and lines, and a coarse, strong^cloth is woven out. of tfye
fibres. It has also been used in recent yeawj the manufacture of
j paper. The plants often cover the ground; foi^ acres. ___
Family Bromeliaceae,
BROMELIA PINGUIN L,
Asuncion, Central Paraguay,
Collected by THOMAS MORONG, December 25, 1888.
Columbia University Collection
03854103