Pitcairnia fusca H.Luther

Literature references:

J. Bromeliad Soc.: 31:65d 42:200 Manzanares 2005: 413 Oliva-Esteve 2000a: 382 Oliva-Esteve 2006: 275 Selby B.G. U.S. Nat. Herb.

Comments:

• The flowering of Pitcairnia fusca is apparently an uncommon occurrence. The type specimen was prepared from a very large unbranched plant that showed no evidence of prior blooming. A cursory search of the area revealed no other plants of this species. —See Luther 1981 p. 31(2): 64-65
• OBSERVATIONS. P. fusca is a semiepiphytic species growing in the forests of the Cordillera Occidental. Attached to tree trunks, it can reach 300 cm in height at the time of flowering. There are also terrestrial populations along road cuts and in the understory of the forests. The brownish-red inflorescence is dense and can be confused with the closely related species P. fosteriana and P. brunnescens.
  Dr. Werner Rauh published an article in the J. Bromeliad Soc. 42(5): 200-201, about P. fosteriana; now it is evident that the article is really about P. fusca. It differs from P. fosteriana by its triangular sepals (versus linear-lanceolate) and petals without appendages (versus petals with appendages). P. brunnescens has floral bracts with recurved apices (versus straight apices in P. fusca).
  
  Butcher’s comment 2007: Regrettably Rauh says his ‘fosteriana’has linear-lanceolate sepals and petal appendages so I’ll be treating P. fosteriana as coming from Ecuador as well as Colombia —See Manzanares 2005 p. 412-3