Distribution & Habitat
Restinga vegetation once covered the type locality of N. utriculosum in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro city, but it was totally eliminated over 100 years ago. The component species of this vegetation were also extinguished, thus creating an insuperable barrier to a full understanding of this taxon. This area is today one of the most heavily populated sections of the city. The type specimen, according to the author, grew in the shadier parts of the arboreal restinga and even produced a bigeneric hybrid (in an isolated episode) with Neoregelia cruenta, another typical inhabitant of the restingas of Rio de Janeiro state (see chapter 7).
The specimen most in keeping with the morphological information provided in the original work (Leme 769) was found in a lowland forest near the Tingui Biological Reserve, at the back of Guanabara Bay, some 60 km from the type locality. —SeeLeme 2000a
