Ananas parguazensis Camargo & L.B.Sm.

Literature references:

FCBS (Web) Holst 1997: 564 J. Bromeliad Soc.: 45:158cd Oliva-Esteve & Steyermark 1987: 104 Oliva-Esteve 2000a: 91 Smith & Downs 1979: 2056,2057: 2054* Tropicos U.S. Nat. Herb.

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Comments:

• Local names. Pina montanera (Venezuela, Amazonas); ananai (Brazil, Roraima); gravata (Brazil, Para).
  Note: It has not been possible to identify Ananas pancheanus Andre with certainty but it may be an earlier name for A. parguazensis instead of a synonym of A. comosus.
  
  Some Wild Pineapples in Venezuela by Freddy Leall and Ernesto Medina in J. Brom. Soc. 45: 152-8. 1995
  In 1889, Baker described Acanthostachys ananassoides, a species that Lindman transferred to the genus Ananas in 1891 as A. microstachys (Smith and Downs, 1979). Later, Schultes (1892) considered it variety microstachys of Ananas sativus. Bertoni (1919) also put it in Ananas but under a different species, A. guaraniticus. Smith (1934) brought it back to the rank of a variety when he proposed Ananas comosus var. microstachys. Finally, he described it as Ananas ananassoides var. typicus (Smith 1939), characterized by its long, narrow, recurving leaves and small, slender, seedy syncarp that easily breaks off from the top of the scape. It grows in poor soil of low, open bush land.
  Baker and Collins (1939) carried out explorations in South America looking for wild and cultivated forms of pineapple and presented the distribution of their collections in an area located between 14° and 29° S and 39° to 59° W. These authors described A. ananassoides as the "most widespread of the species," representing the highest development of drought resistance within the genus, and growing in dry, poor soils of the Cerrado of the Brazilian Planalto.
  Camargo and Smith (1968) described Ananas parguazensis on the basis of "its combination of retrorse foliar and bracteal spines and on its infundibuliform petal-scales."
  In volume 12, part 1, BROMELIACEAE, of FLORA DE VENEZUELA, Smith (1971) listed only the type collection of Ananas parguazensis from southwestern border of the country; A. ananassoides from the States of Anzoategui, Bolivar and Amazonas. He stated that the latter species grows "on poor, stony soil in Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Paraguay:" However, in Smith and Downs, 1979, he retracted that statement, and transferred all the specimens included in the FLORA DE VENEZUELA as A. ananassoides to A. parguazensis. In the latter treatment the authors established that A. ananassoides grows in open and drier habitats than the rest of the species, from near sea level up to 1000 m altitude, in Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. In contrast, A. parguazensis is found in relatively humid habitats, 45 m to 1200 m altitude from Colombia to Surinam, including Amazonian Brazil.
  We have identified specimens collected in numerous sites in Venezuela as Ananas ananassoides or A. parguazensis according to the descriptions of Smith and Downs (1979).
  In addition, we have studied Ananas populations that are very difficult to be assigned to species because of the scant morphological information on Ananas parguazensis, and also because some of the population looks like natural hybrids between these two species, especially when they grow in close proximity.
  In this paper, we provide detailed morphological descriptions of Ananas specimens found in several sites of southwestern Venezuela that we consider to belong to either A. ananassoides or A. parguazensis. We collected those specimens of wild Ananas species in the southern borders of the States of Apure, Anzoategui, Monagas, and in the northern and central regions of Bolivar and Amazonas. We brought samples of flower and fruit, where appropriate, to the laboratory for further analysis and measurement.
  GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTIONS
  The distribution of specimens registered in Smith (1972) and Smith and Downs (1979), and the collections of Leal and his associates (Leal and Antoni, 1981; Leal et al. 1986, and Medina et al. 1991) are indicated in figure 4.
  It is clear that A. ananassoides has the wider range, occurring from southern Brazil and Paraguay to Colombia and Venezuela; while A. parguazensis has been reported from the Orinoco basin in Colombia and Venezuela, to Surinam and Amazonian Brazil.
  BOTANICAL DESCRIPTIONS —See Smith & Downs 1979