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Bromeliaceae
Bromeliad Family
By:
Sandra Popp
A New World
family (with one Old World species) of about 56 genera and 3000 species with
Tillandsia the largest genus, having 544 species (SMI). The plants are
herbaceous, and familiar to gardeners mostly as epiphytes (air plants), although
there are many terrestrial species, including species of Pitcairnia.
Often epiphytic species are forced into terrestrial cultivation.
Most bromeliads form rosettes, with thick, waxy, often colorful leaves, these
often clustered basally into a water-holding tank. Inflorescences
variable, often showy, often panicles, often with showy bracts. Flowers
round or biliaterally symmetrical. Sepals 3. Petals 3. Stamens 6. Carpels
3, the ovary superior or inferior. Fruits capsules or berries. Often
forming small plants (pups) basally at the time of flowering. Family
includes pineapples (Annanas comosus), numerous Florida natives (mostly
species of Tillandsia, including Spanish Moss, T. usneoides), and
a vast array of horticultural ornamentals. Some species are passively
carnivorous.
The subfamily Tillandsioideae contains the fewest genera (9) but the greatest
number of species (1,277) in the Bromeliaceae. They are found in the deserts,
forests and mountains of Central and South America, and Mexico and the Southern
United States. The plants are epiphytic, meaning absorbing water and nutrients
from the air. They grow on trees or rocks. The water-absorbing trichomes
(scales on the leaves) cover the leaves so completely that they usually appear
gray or white. All the leaves are spineless, and the fruit is a dry capsule
containing winged seeds dispersed by breezes. Feathery plumes help adhere to
surfaces for germination. This subfamily is the most evolved adapting for
survival in very dry conditions. Thinner-leafed species grow in rainy areas and
the thick leafed species are adapted for dry climates.
Key to
Important Ornamental Genera of Bromeliaceae in South Florida
1. Large
bromeliads with silver foliage…Alcantarea odorata
1. Plants
not silver…2
2. Plants
terrestrial (not merely epiphytes grown on the ground); tank absent or minimal…Portea
(inflorescence a showy panicle with much red and purple coloration)
2. Plants
epiphytic (epiphytic species grown on the ground have tanks); tank present (or
absent in some epiphytic species)…3
3. Leaves
longer than 18”…Alcanterea imperialis
3. Leaves
smaller…4
4. Leaf
blades without spines on the margins; flowers in flat spikes…5
4. Leaf
blades spiny-margined…6
5. Plants
usually without tanks, foliage often with dense covering of scales; petals with
no scales…Tillandsia (Guzmania may be similar but the petals
connate)
5. Plants
usually with tanks; leaves without scales; petals with internal scales…Vriesia
(usually with very showy bracts)
6.
Inflorescence nested tightly in the leaves …Nidularium (also true of
Cryptanthus, usually small plants with reddish patterend leaves, the sepals
characteristically united into a tube) (colorful bracts in Nidularium
have color over the entire bract as opposed to partial coloration seen in
Neoregelia)
6.
Inflorescence rising above the leaves…7
7.
Inflorescence compound (in most locally cultivated selections); inner leaves not
with bright reddish coloring differing from other leaves…Aechmea
7.
Inflorescence simple; inner leaves with bright red markings on part of the leaf
(vs. the entire leaf in Nidularium); inflorescence simple…Neoregelia
Other plants in the manual include:
Tillandsia bulbosa
Tillandsia fascicularis
Tillandsia cyanea
Tilandsia streptophylla
Vriesea splendens
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