MainDescriptionReferencesPlate

Vriesea extensa L.B.Sm.  protologue
plant flowering 2–3 m high. leaves many in a funnel form rosette, ca 1 m long; sheath large but inconspicuous, covered with minute appressed brown scales; blade ligulate, acute, 5–10 cm wide, pale bluish green, smooth and glabrous above, obscurely lepidote beneath. inflorescence: peduncle erect, stout; peduncle bracts divergent, the lower subfoliaceous and imbricate, the upper acuminate from a broadly ovate base, not covering the peduncle; fertile part laxly once-branched from a few branches; primary bracts much shorter than the sterile bases of the branches, broadly ovate, acute; branches spreading, many-flowered, lax, to 65 cm long, lightly sigmoid, geniculate; floral bracts broadly elliptic, obtuse, 4 cm long, exceeded by the sepals, inflated, ecarinate, humped and incurved below the apex, strongly rugose on drying. flowers distichous, spreading; pedicel stout, to 1 cm long; sepals elliptic, 35–50 mm long; petals linear, acute, to 8 cm long, shorter than the stamens. fruits: seeds bearing a coma on both ends.

Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.