Aechmea paniculigera
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Aechmea paniculigera
| 1987jbs8 |
Mitch Jones 11/24 |
Aechmea paniculigera (Swartz) Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Indies 593. 1864.
Bromelia paniculigera Swartz, Prod. Veg. Ind. Occ. 56. 1788.
Bromelia paniculata Gmelin, Syst. 2: 529. 1791; nomen, error for "paniculigera."
Bromelia latifolia Willdenow ex Schultes filius in Roemer & Schultes, Syst. 7(2): 1283. 1830. Type. Colombia, Humboldt & Bonpland (B). now species in own right under Aechmea – see DeRebus II. 137. 1997
? Pitcairnia macrophylla Willdenow ex Schultes filius in Roemer & Schultes, Syst. 7(2): 1283. 1830; nomen.
Bromelia paniculata Steudel, nom. ed. 2.1: 226. 1840; nomen.
? Hoplophytum paniculatum Beer, Bromel. 130. 1856; in part.
Hohenbergia paniculigera (Swartz) Baker in Saunders, Ref. Bot. 4: sub pl. 284.2. 1871.
Aechmea columnaris Andre, Ill. Hort. 25: 50, FIG. 1878. Type. Arbelaez, Cundinamarca, Colombia, Andre 1753 (K, NY). now treated as a synonym of A. latifolia – see DeRebus II. 137. 1997
Aechmea paniculata Batise, Revue Hort. 52: 245. 1880; non Ruiz & Pavon, 1798.
Aechmea latifolia (Willdenow ex Schultes filius) Klotzsch ex Baker, Handb. Bromel. 36. 1889. now species in own right – see DeRebus II. 137. 1997
Aechmea mertensii sensu Wittmack, Gartenflora 38: 516. 1889; non Schultes filius.
Aechmea chromatica C. H. Wright, Kew Bull. for 1921: 220. 1921. Type. Kew Hortus s n (K, icon).
Desc from S&D
Plant flowering 7-25 dm high.
Leaves 20-25 in a dense rosette, 1-2 m long, longer or shorter than the inflorescence;
Sheaths suborbicular, 2 dm in diameter;
Blades ligulate, 8 cm wide, broadly rounded, mucronate, armed with coarse teeth up to 5 mm long, thick, coriaceous, deep green, evenly vestite with coarse white scales.
Scape erect, 1 cm or more in diameter, sparsely subfarinose-lepidote;
Scape-bracts erect to reflexed, the uppermost forming a spreading coma beneath the inflorescence, ample, 2 dm long, bright purple, entire or sparsely denticulate.
Inflorescence many-flowered, densely cylindric, acute, paniculate, to 34 cm long, 9 cm in diameter; axes green, subfarinose lepidote;
Primary bracts lower ones like the scape-bracts but much narrower, exceeding the axillary branches, the upper narrowly triangular, acuminate, not reaching even the lowest flower of the spike;
Branches all fertile throughout, 2-flowered or 3-flowered or rarely more, the lower ones fascicled, the upper single; rhachis slender, geniculate.
Floral bracts narrowly triangular-ovate, 2.5 mm long, entire, margins free from the rhachis;
Flowers sessile, erect.
Sepals strongly asymmetric, 7 mm long including the stout, spreading, 2 mm long mucro, free, glabrous, bluish-white toward the base, reddish toward the apex;
Petals 14 mm long, obscurely mucronulate, pale-violet, bearing 2 fimbriate scales 3 mm above the base;
Stamens much shorter than the petals, the filaments of the second series highly adnate to the petals, the anthers linear, acute, 3.5 mm long;
pollen biporate;
pistil exceeding the stamens but shorter than the petals, very sparsely furfuraceous;
Ovary 5 mm long; epigynous tube short but distinct; placentae subapical; ovules distinctly caudate.
Type. Swartz (holotype, S), Jamaica.
Distribution. Epiphytic and saxicolous, 900-1600 m alt, Jamaica, Colombia, Venezuela.
JAMAICA. Wright s n (BM); Harris 5168 (! Mez); 5496 (! Mez); Knochaena, 13 Dec 1910, Malcolm s n (IJ); Bluefields Mountain, Westmoreland, Mar 1908, Britton & Hollick 2007 (NY); interior of St. Elizabeth, Purdie s n (K); Accompong, 9 Mar 1949, Lewis s n (IJ); Mandeville, Manchester, 29 Aug 1907, Britton 978 (NY, US); Marshall's Pen, Robertson 5382 (K); Mt. Diablo, St. Ann Parish, 8 Mar 1936, Hunnewell & Gris¬com 14282 (GH); Christiana, Manchester, 2 Apr 1966, Read 1642 (US); Corn Puss Gap, Portland, 29 Jul 1966, Read 1694 (US). COLOMBIA. Cundinamarca: Alban, 1932, Amortegui 299 (US); Dec 1932, Perez-¬Arbelaez 2007 (US); Sasaima, Ju11945, Dugand & Jaramillo 3896 (COL, US); Arbelaez, 12 Oct 1946, Foster 1871 (COL, GH, MO, US); Viota, Liberia, 30 Dec 1967, Uribe U. 6041 (COL, US). VENEZUELA. Distrito Federal: Cerro Naiguata, 2 Nov 1963, Steyermark 91826 (US, VEN); 9 Oct 1966, 97513 (US, VEN).
Aechmea paniculigera by Robert W Read in J. Brom. Soc. 37(1): 8-10. 1987
Scientific illustrations prepared in support of the publication of a new species or of information new to science are of many sorts. Line drawings, etchings, woodcuts, engravings, halftones, and full color lithographs have been used at one time or another. For the sake of example and variety, we take this opportunity to illustrate not only a method of illustration common to scientific literature, but to give an example of pitfalls that we often meet.
Aechmea paniculigera (Swartz) Grisebach, is a fairly common species in Jamaica. The parentheses in this authority citation indicate that Olof Swartz was the first author to treat or name the species which he called "Bromelia paniculigera". The name following the parens indicates the person who transferred the species to the presently accepted genus, hence the name as it appears above.
The Smith and Downs monograph (1979) lists eight synonyms for Aechmea paniculigera including A. columnaris Andre, from Colombia. In this regard, Andre (1889; 1983) stated: "A. paniculigera, which is close to our species {that is, A. columnaris}, is easily distinguished from it by large bract-like leaves at the base of the panicle, by leaves with very fine spines, and by purplish red flowers, etc." But, specimens at the U.S. National Herbarium do not support these apparent distinctions.
However, the illustration labelled "Aechmea columnaris" drawn by Vare from a watercolor by Andre appearing in the foreword of the 1983 American edition of Andre and in volume 25 (1878) of L'Illustration Horticole exhibits rather small bracts at the base of the inflorescence and exceptionally large marginal teeth on the leaves. These characters appear also in figure 627 A-E (page 1854) of Smith and Downs (1979) labelled "Ae. paniculigera".
Among the other synonyms of Aechmea paniculigera listed by Smith and Downs is "Aechmea mertensii sensu Wittmack . . . non Schultes filius." the word "sensu" is used because although Wittmack (1889) used the name Aechmea mertensii he misapplied it. "Non Schultes filius" refers to the fact that J. H. Schultes, the son of J. A. Schultes, originally described and published the name A. mertensii for a different plant. Figure 5 is a photograph of one engraving which L. Wittmack used when he thought that he was introducing A. mertensii to his German audience, but according to Smith and Downs he used the wrong identification.
Updated 16/12/24