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![]() (Dimension: 2030 x 1550 pixels - Counter: 6322) Tillandsia cf. propagulifera ![]() (Uploaded as: Tillandsia unknown) Locality: Peru - Photographer: Jerry Raack Note: Plant acaulescent, 108 cm wide, without inflorescence 57 cm tall, with inflorescence 213 cm tall, flowering much taller, dense, with very many leaves, with 56 to 64 leaves, forming a funnelform rosette, cinereous-green. Stem much shorter than the leaves, 70 to 75 cm long. Leaves spirally arranged, fleshy and rigid-coriaceous, 70 to 75 cm long, curving and therefor exceeded by the inflorescence, sparsely lepidote adaxial not hiding the green of the leaves, densely cinerous lepidote abaxial, outside, less lepidote inside, cinereous scales, long tapering blades, green adaxial with a few cinerous scales, wholly cinerous lepidote abaxial, channeled, stiff and thick in texture. sheaths ample, contrasting with the blade in color and contracted into the blade, stiff-coriaceous, obovate, inflated, 9 to 10 cm long, 5.1 cm wide, pale-brown where other leaf sheaths overlap and darker brown scales where exposed to sun, pale brown or castaneous. blades arching, rigid, fleshy, channeled, very narrowly triangular, 61 to 66 cm long, 2.8 to 3 cm wide, attenuate, acute, densely lepidote abaxial, nearly glabrous adaxial, much less lepidote on upperside, with closely appressed, cinereous scales, not adaxial to strongly masking the color abaxial of the blade, cinereous green. Inflorescence terminal, erect, thrice-branched, of 24 branches , with spirally arranged branches, fertile part 142 cm long, 197 cm long, lax, fertile part paniculate, Red axis and rachis, small red primary bracts hugging the base of the branches, tall rather thin axis, with long thin branches and secondary branches at right angles to the axis. peduncle prominent, bracteate but for most part exposed, erect, 55 cm long, 10 mm in diam., glabrous, green turning reddish where exposed to sun. peduncle-bracts suberect diverging slightly near top of peduncle, remote, the lower ones foliaceous the upper ones more like primary bracts, coriaceous, the lower ones narrowly triangular and the upper ones more broadly triangular, the lower peduncle bracts are foliaceous, while the upper ones are shorter and wider and more like primary bracts, green adaxial and cinerous lepidote abaxial, acute, relatively short compared with the peduncle length with the blade only exceeding the internode length, densely lepidote abaxially, green adaxial and cinereous-green abaxial. axis for most part exposed, slender, straight, terete, glabrous, tinged reddish-brown to wholly red in sun. primary-bracts divergent with the branches, remote, rigid-coriaceous, like the upper peduncle bracts broadly triangular, very short in comparison to the branches, wrapped around the base of each branch, green to reddish-green to wholly red in bright sun, broadly triangular in shape, evident venation, acute, equaling the stipe of the branches but much much shorter than the branches, glabrous, green in the center abaxial, shading to wholly red where exposed to the sun as they wrap around the branches. spikes divergent, laxly many flowered, distichous, terete, linear, acute, 16 to 72 cm long, with secondary spikes 15 to 20 cm long, diameter .2 to .3 cm wide, sterile bracts like normal bracts. rachis for most part exposed, slender, slightly flexuous, terete, the internodes 38 to 70 mm long, glabrous, reddish on the lower half to green on the upper (outer) half. Floral-bracts clasping the flowers, remote, coriaceous, prominently nerved, carinate, lanceolate, acute, inflated, 2.2 cm long, .7 cm wide, much shorter than the internodes, about as long as the sepals, abaxially glabrous, green turning red where exposed directly to the sun. Flowers contiguous (erect) spreading only slightly from the rachis at anthesis, 6.3 mm long, receptacle short, .2 cm long. sepals thin coriaceous, surface even (not obviously nerved), symmetrical, obovate-lanceolate (1:3 to 1:4), acute, incurved slightly, 2.2 cm long, .6 to .7 cm wide, with thin margins, adaxial and abaxial ones all alike and ecarinate, ecarinate, evenly short connate, for 5 to 6 mm fused, glabrous, green with a red apex. petals fleshy, spatulate with a continuous curve in the petal, with obovate-oblong blade, obtuse, 3.8 cm long, .7 cm wide, free from each other, dark violet to purple with the lower 1/3rd white. stamens exerted well beyond the petals, shorter than the pistil. filaments stout and (sub-)terete for most of their length, straight (not plicate), all equal in length approximately, 4.8 cm long, free, white shading to green in the upper half. anthers dorsifixed, in the middle, oblong, 2 mm long, obtuse at the apex. pistil exceeding the stamens. ovary slenderly ovoid, 6 mm long, 1.8 mm wide, tapering into the style, superior. style elongate, many times as long as the ovary, slender. stigmas conduplicate spiralized, darker green than the style, forming a spiralized club shape 1.5 mm long. Identification: solved ![]() |