Aechmea kleinii
Click thumbnails for full size, scaled to a new window.
Aechmea kleinii
Aechmea kleinii Reitz, Anais Herb. Barbosa Rodrigues 5: 254, pl. 1. 1954.
Desc from S&D
Plant stemless, flowering 30-40cm high.
Leaves 8 in a funnelform rosette, to 28cm long;
Sheaths subovate, ample, entire, lepidote, brown-violet beneath toward base, dark violet above except the brown margins;
Blades rigid, sub rounded (outer ones) and apiculate, green, laxly serrulate with antrorse brown spines 1mm long, glabrous above, very densely lepidote beneath.
Scape erect, ca 20cm long, 3.5mm in diameter, terete, white-lanate.
Inflorescence simple, densely spicate, obtuse, few-several-flowered, flowering from the base; rhachis covered by the flowers.
Floral bracts ovate, mucronate, 11mm long, 9mm wide, much exceeded by the sepals, encircling the ovary at base, rose;
Flowers nocturnal (midnight to midday following), sessile, 22mm long.
Sepals strongly asymmetric, 5mm long with a terminal spine 1.5mm long, short-connate (drawing shows 1/3 connate), rose becoming yellow at base, glabrous, slightly carinate toward apex;
Petals oblong-ovate, broadly rounded and cucullate, free, yellow, bearing 2 fimbriate scales at base;
Stamens included, the second series short-adnate to the petals; anthers acute, 3.5mm long; pollen ellipsoid, biporate;
Ovary subglobose, trigonous, 8mm long, epigynous tube funnelform; placentae central, ovules obtuse.
Type. Reitz & Klein 935 (holotype, HBR), Serra da Boa Vista, Rancho Queimado (Sao Jose), Santa Catarina, Brazil, 15 Aug 1952.
Distribution. Epiphytic in forest, 1000-1300m alt, known from the type locality only: 28 Sep 1953, Reitz 5762 (HBR, US); 13 Oct 1960, Reitz & Klein 10143 (HBR, US).
From Bromeliaceas 1983
Differs from A. comata in
Flowers at night
Flowers open from bottom first not from middle
Comes from different habitat
Leaves rigid compared to paper leathery
Inflorescence <5cm compared to 7-8cm
Differs from A. kertesziae in
Inflorescence not sub-lax
Comes from different habitat.
Differs from A. blumenavii in
Smaller flowers <5cm compared to 9cm long
Denser spike
Named after Dr. Roberto Miguel Klein, Curator of Herbario Barbosa Rodrigues
Updated 20/08/22