MainDescriptionReferences

Aechmea laevigata Leme  diagnose
plant epiphytic, flowering ca 40 cm tall. leaves ca 10, rosulate, suberect, subcoriaceous, forming at base a narrowly funnelform rosette; sheath elliptic, 12–13 x 6–7 cm, densely and minutely pale lepidote on both sides, dark purple toward base mainly inside; blade sublinear, 23–30 x 30–34.5 cm,( this seems incorrect - from drawing this could be 23–30 cm long 3–4.5 cm wide) subdensely and inconspicuously white-lepidote on both sides, adaxially green, abaxially reddish-purple, margins entire, apex acute and distinctly apiculate, apiculus 4–5 mm long. inflorescence: peduncle erect, slender, ca 30 cm long, ca 0.4 cm in diameter, green, sparsely white-lanate to glabrous; peduncle bracts lanceolate, acuminate, 28 x 8–10 cm, green to dark purple, entire, sublanate near the base, white-floccose toward apex, thin in texture, nerved, erect, distinctly shorter than the internodes and exposing the peduncle; fertile part shortly paniculate, once-branched, erect, ca 5 cm long, ca 4 cm in diameter, without any apical coma of sterile bracts, rachis 2–3 mm in diameter, sparsely white-lanate, green; primary bracts narrowly lanceolate, slenderly acuminate, 15–20 x 4 mm, entire, thin in texture, spreading, green, white-floccose, trichomes fimbriate, nearly equaling to shorter than the branches; branches ca 2, subspreading, ca 25–30 mm long (including the petals), 6 to 7-flowered, basal peduncle inconspicuous, 2–3 mm long, ca 2 mm in diameter, green, white-floccose, rachis very short, straight, green, sparsely white-lepidote, trichomes fimbriate; floral bracts inconspicuous, ovate-triangular to subreniform, acute and apiculate to acuminate, stramineous, nerved, entire, inconspicuously and sparsely white-sublanate (including the margins), ecarinate, distinctly shorter than the ovary, 2–3 mm long, ca 2 mm wide at base. flowers sessile, 17–19 mm long, odorless, densely and polystichously arranged (including those of the branches), suberect to nearly spreading; sepals 5–6 x 4 mm (including the apical mucro), strongly asymmetrical with the lateral membranaceous wing rounded and about equaling the midnerve and shorter than the apical ca 1 mm long mucro, connate at base for ca 2 mm, orange, ecarinate, sparsely white-lepidote toward base, trichomes fimbriate, inconspicuously verrucose at base; petals subspatulate, obtuse-emarginate, 12–13 x 4 mm, free, white, erect except for the suberect apex at anthesis, bearing 2 appendages at base, ca 4 mm long, irregularly long acicular-digitate, as well as 2 distinct longitudinal callosities ca 7 mm long. stamens: filament terete, the antesepalous ones free, ca 8, the antepetalous ones basally adnate to the petals for 5 mm, ca 7 mm long; anther 2.5–3 mm long, dorsifixed near the middle, base sagittate, apex apiculate. pistil: stigma conduplicate-spiral, elliptic, blades ca 2 mm long, white, shortly lacerate; ovary 5–6 mm long, terete, orange, sparsely white-lepidote, trichomes fimbriate; epigynous tube ca 1.5 mm long; placentation apical; ovules obtuse to obtusely apiculate. fruits unknown.

Edited from : Leme 2005. (protologue) Three New Miscellaneous Species of Bromeliaceae from Bahia, Brazil .