20

genus Fernseea Baker

(subfam. Bromelioideae)

Publ: Handb. Bromel. 20 (1889)

Type: Bromelia itatiaiae Wawra, Osterr. Bot. Zeitschr. 30: 114. 1880.

Number of species: 2
   and 1 infraspecific taxa
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Genus Notes:

Handb. Bromel.: 19. 17 Aug-15 Oct 1889.
Type Bromelia itatiaiae Wawra, Österr. Bot. Z. 30: 114. 1880. Fernseea itatiaiae (Wawra) Baker, Handb. Bromel.: 19. 17 Aug-15 Oct 1889. Currently recognized in the subfam. Bromelioideae. See E. Pereira & Moutinho (in Bradea 3: 339-348. 1983). Named in honor of Moravian-Austrian botanist and physician at Vienna, Dr. Heinrich Ritter Wawra von Fernsee (1831-1887). Wawra collected on several around-the-world expeditions as well as in Brazil accompanying European royalty, and wrote ‘Les Broméliacées brésiliennes’ (1881), and ‘Itinera principum S. Coburgi’ (1883-1888). “Named after Baron Wawra von Fernsee, who has collected and carefully described and figured this and many other of the most interesting Brazilian Bromeliaceae, and was engaged in writing a monograph of them at the time of his death.” The specific epithet derives from Itatiaia, a mountain in Brazil.
(from Grant & Zijlstra 1998)