Aechmea serrata (L.) Mez

Aechmea serrata (L.) Mez, in DC. Monog
Phan. 9: 243. 1896.
Tillandsia serrata L. Sp. PI. 286. 1753.
Caraguata serrata Schultes. in R. & S. Syst. Veg. 7: 1231 . 1830.
Platystachys Plumieri Beer, Bromel. 91. 1857.
Aechmea Plumieri E. Morren; Baker, Handb. Bromel. 45, as synonvra. 1889. Not ^4. Plumieri
Baker, Handb. Bromel. 50. 1889. Aechmea martinicensis Baker, Jour. Bot. 17: 132. 1879.
Leaves up to 8 dm. long; sheaths ovate, 9 cm. or more wide, densely appressed-castaneouslepidote, castaneous on the inside; blades ligulate, acuminate, mucronate, 33 mm. wide, armed with coarse pale teeth 5 mm. long, densely appressed-white-Iepidote especially below; scape erect, 8 mm. in diameter; scape-bracts tubular-involute, erect, imbricate, ovate, acuminate, serrate, densely brown-appressed-lepidote; inflorescence very densely bipinnate, ovoid, manyflowered, exceeded by the leaves, 15 cm. long, 10 cm. in diameter; primary bracts like the scapebracts, equaling or exceeding the axillary spikes, serrate; spikes densely 1 0-20-flowered ; rhachis compressed, 4-winged with the wings decurrent on the backs of the floral bracts; floral bracts very broadly ovate, entire or minutely serrulate, mucronulate, equaling the sepals, strongly convex, combining with the rhachis-wings to form a pouch about the flower, prominently nerved, the lower ones with a median wing; flowers sessile, 26 mm. long; sepals strongly asymmetric, 13 mm. long including the slender, 4 mm. long, terminal mucro, connate for 2 mm.; petals mucronate, 1 8 mm. long, bearing 2 fimbriate scales 3 mm. above the base ; stamens slightly shorter than the petals, anthers 6 mm. long, acute; ovary ellipsoid, 8 mm. long, constricted toward the apex, the epigjTious tube deep, infundibuliform; berry scarcely enlarged from the ovary; seeds 2.5 mm. long, ovoid, acute, brown.
T^TE loCALiTV: Tropical America. Distribution: Martinique.

Aechmea serrata is a plant species in the genus Aechmea. It was reportedly originally from Martinique in the West Indies, but now extinct in the wild. It does survive as a cultivated ornamental.