Vriesea kautskyana Pereira
& Penna n. sp.
Subgenus
Vriesea section Vriesea
Plant : flowering about 90 cm high.
Leaves : ligulate, 30 to 60 cm long.
Sheaths : narrowly ovate, about 10 cm long, 6 cm wide,
wholly green, minutely bruneo- lepidote internally.
Blades : linear, 15 to 45 cm long, 3 cm maximum
wideness, wholly green , glabrous, narrowing to apex, acuminate at the extreme.
Scape : about 45 cm long, 5 mm diameter, erect, 4 cm
long internodes, green.
Scape bracts : dry even before anthesis, narrowly
triangular, about 9 cm long, glabrous,
vaginate, longer than internodes, totally
covering the rachys.
Inflorescence : bipinate, 50 cm long, narrow.
Primary bracts : like scape bracts, shorter than the branches.
Branches : about 12 cm long, erect, adpressed,
sometimes slightly curved, flexuous rachilla .
Floral bracts : oblong lanceolate, 50 mm long 7 mm wide,
membranaceous, strongly nerved, externally glabrous, internally punctulate,
lepidote, not carinate nor incurved, at the base red, then pallid, embracing the flowers, exceeding the
sepals.
Flowers : 5 cm long, distichous, not secund, erect,
adpressed, covering the rachis.
Pedicels : whitish, 6 mm long, 5 mm diameter.
Sepals : lanceolate, 25 mm long, red, ecarinate,
glabrous. Petals : narrowly ovate, 40 mm long, yellow, obtuse
and emarginate at apex, bearing 2 ovate and denticulate scales.
Stamens : exserted at anthesis, exceeding the petals.
Filaments : complanate.
Anthers : linear, 6 mm long, sagittate at base and
obtuse at apex.
Stylus : exceeding the anthers, never equaling.
Ovary ; pyramidal, 7 mm long.
Placentae : fixed from base to apex of locules.
Ovules : many, apiculate.
Typus : Brazil, Espírito Santo State, Domingos
Martins, Santa Maria, 800 m above sea
level, collected by Roberto Kautsky, nš
731 , on the 1st April 1982,
Holotypus at Herbarium
Bradeanum, HB nš 71.472 , Isotypus HB nš
71.473 , Paratypus
Gustavo Martinelli nš 8015 , RB .
Comments : this species is not evidently like any other
Brazilian species, known at the present
time (1982). For its erect, dense and
narrow inflorescence it is near Vriesea friburgensis var. paludosa (L. B. Smith) L. B. Smith, and Vriesea stricta L. B. Smith , but differs
in its oblong lanceolate floral bracts, almost
covering the flowers, lanceolate sepals and many other characteristics.
Published in Bradea, Herbarium Bradeanumīs bulletin,
volume III , nš 43 , 14th April 1983 ,
Pg. 380 , photo nš 2 , Pg. 382 .
Complementary comments : It is a very peculiar plant,
presenting scape bracts, primary bracts and sometimes floral bracts with a dry aspect, even before anthesis. Our
plants did not survive in cultivation, but we have color photos from living
material and exsicata .