Aechmea woronowii
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Aechmea woronowii
Detail from Bromelioideae of Ecuador Manzanares 2002 p203-4
35. Aechmea woronowii Harms, Notizbl. Bot. Gard Berlin-Dahlem 11: 60. 1930; emend. L.B. Sm., Phytologia 24: 441. 1972.
PLANT flowering 130-150 cm tall, 300 cm wide, forming dense groups, rosette campanulate.
LEAVES spinose and coriaceous.
SHEATHS 28 cm long, 24 cm wide, elliptic, margins somewhat serrate, densely lepidote, brown reddish.
BLADES 100-120 cm long, 12 cm wide, margins with spines 4-6 mm long, lingulate, apex terminating in a spine brown and pungent, lepidote, green with irregular dark markings.
INFLORESCENCE 46 cm long, 17 cm wide, branched, sub-dense, cylindrical, pink, glabrous, erect.
PEDUNCLE shorter than the leaves, 43 cm long, 20 mm in diameter, erect, pink.
PEDUNCLE-BRACTS 11 cm long, 6 cm wide, elliptic, margins serrate, pink, lepidote, erect.
PRIMARY-BRACTS ovate, the lower as the peduncle-bracts, 16 cm long, 8 cm wide, partly covering the spike, apex sharply pointed.
SPIKE peduncle 1-1.5 cm long, divergent, lax, 12-14 cm long, 5 cm wide, with 2-5 distichous flowers, white to pink.
FLORAL-BRACTS 7 mm long, 7 mm wide, reniform, apex rounded, shorter than the ovary, pink.
FLOWERS sessile, white.
SEPALS 18 mm long, 15 mm wide, orbicular, asymmetrical, alate carinate, margins entire, apex mucronate, glabrous, white.
PETALS 4.2 cm long; with two appendages at the base 15 mm long, cristate. (green or white - see Manzanares book)
OVARY 35 mm long, ovoid, glabrous, white.
Night flowering
TYPE. Woronow & Juzepczuk 6158 (holotype: B), Hetucha, Orteguaza River, Caqueta, Colombia, Jul. 1926.
ETYMOLOGY. Named after its discoverer, the Russian botanist Georg Jurij Nikolaewitsch Woronow (1874-1934).
OBSERVATIONS. A species of great beauty when in flower. Inflorescences with green flowers have been recorded from the northern part of Amazonian Ecuador and with white flowers from the south. In the Amazonian forests of Peru, the primary bracts are reddish and the spikes are orange. In spite of the ornamental value of its inflorescence, it is not cultivated commercially due to its large size.
MATERIAL EXAMINED. Sucumbios: Dureno, Aguarico River, Putumayo, 1 Aug. 1974, PLOWMAN, SHEVIAK & DAVIS 4047 (GH, US); collected on the road between Santa Cecilia and Nueva Loja, Aug. 1994, flowering in cultivation, Sept. 1999, J.M. MANZANARES 6743 (QCNE). Orellana: Aguarico, Parque Nacional Yasuni, Lagunas de Garzacocha, 01deg01'S 75deg47'W 200 m, 22 Sept. 1988, C.E. CERON & N. GALLO 5085 (QCNE); Orellana, sector Huashito, 20 km north of Coca, 00deg20'S 77deg05'W 250 m, 3-21 Nov. 1989, E. GUDINO 192 (QCNE); Aguarico, Reserva Etnica Huaorani, Maxus road and oil pipe line km 91, 00deg53'S 76deg14’W, 250 m, 26 June 1994, N. PITMAN, A. DIK & C. AULESTIA 427 (QCNE). Napo: Experimental Station INIAP-NAPO, Payamino, 5 km north of Coca, Reserva Floristica El Chuncho, 00deg25'S 77deg00'W 250 m, 10-11 Sept. 1986, W. PALACIOS & D. NEILL 1242 (QCNE); Aguarico, Parque Nacional Yasuni, Lagunas de Garzacocha, 01deg01'S 75deg47'W 200 m, 22 Sept. 1988, C.E. CERON & N. GALLO 4868 (QCNE). Zamora Chinchipe: Cordillera del Condor, path from Miazi to the Observatorio Azul, 78deg38'W 04deg17'S, 940 m, 8 June 1999, J.M. MANZANAIZES, E. CUEVA & B. GIRKO 6904 (QCNE).
DISTRIBUTION. Epiphyte in lowland Amazonian rainforest.
Aechmea woronowii Harms, Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin 11: 60. 1930.
Streptocalyx subnuda L. B. Smith, Bot. Mus. Leafl. 17: 73, fig. 1955. Type. Rio Caucaya, between Puerto Jaramillo and Rio Putumayo, Narino, Colombia, Schultes 3719 (GH), 16 May 1942.
Streptocalyx holmesii Slingerland, Brom. Soc. Bull. 14: 53 (color plate), 54. 1964; J. Holmes, Brom. Soc. Bull. 15: 93 (color plate). 1965; nomen. Based on Lee Moore s n, vicinity of Iquitos, Loreto, Peru, cultivated Marnier-Lapostolle 34 (US), Jan 1967.
Desc from S&D
Plant coarse, 1 m high or more.
Leaves about 1 m long;
Blades ligulate, acuminate, thickened at apex, 7 cm wide, covered with white appressed scales, laxly serrulate.
Scape stout, densely farinose-lepidote;
Scape-bracts elliptic, 15 cm long, the upper densely imbricate, serrulate, subchartaceous, rose, subulate-indurate at the apex.
Inflorescence bipinnate, cylindric, 26 cm long, farinose-lepidote;
Primary bracts lowest ones like the scape-bracts, exceeding the branches, the others abruptly reduced and little if at all larger than the floral bracts;
Branches spreading, 6 cm long, geniculate, laxly few flowered.
Floral bracts vestigial, narrowly reniform with an acicular apex; flowers distichous, divergent.
Sepals asymmetric with a large wing, mucronate, 11mm long;
Ovary slenderly obovoid or ellipsoid, becoming 15 mm long in fruit, epigynous tube broadly funnelform, 2 mm high, placentae apical.
Type. Woronow & Juzepczuk 6158 (holotype, B; photo, B 1192/28), Hetucha, Rio Orteguaza, Caqueta, Colombia, Jul1926.
Distribution. Epiphytic in forest, 100-450 m alt, Amazonian Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
COLOMBIA. Amazonas: Trapecio amazonico, Sep 1946, Schultes 8294 (US); La Chorrera, 14 Jun 1974, Sastre 3353 (P).
ECUADOR. Napo: Dureno, Rio Aguarico, Canton Putumayo, 1 Aug 1974, Plowman, Sheviak & Davis 4047 (GH, US).
Updated 06/02/25