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Spreading Airplant

Tillandsia utriculata L.

Description

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Plants single, flowering to 2 m. Stems short. Leaves 20--75, many-ranked, spreading and recurved, not twisted, gray-green (rarely variegated with linear cream stripes), to 1 m ´ 1.5--3.5 cm, finely appressed-scaly; sheath pale or slightly rust colored, ovate, not inflated, not forming pseudobulb, 6--15 cm wide; blade linear-triangular, leathery, channeled to involute, apex attenuate. Inflorescences: scape conspicuous, erect, 20--50 cm, 6--12 mm diam.; bracts densely imbricate proximally, often lax distally, erect to spreading, like leaves but gradually smaller; sheath of bracts narrowing gradually into blade; spikes very laxly 6--11-flowered, erect to spreading, 2--3-pinnate, linear, 15--40 ´ 10--15 cm, apex acute; branches 5--40 (rarely simple). Floral bracts widely spaced, erect, green or tinged purple, exposing most of rachis at anthesis, ovate, not keeled, 1.2--2 cm, leathery, venation slight, base visible at anthesis, apex acute, surfaces glabrous. Flowers 10--200, conspicuous; sepals free, elliptic, not keeled, 1.4--2 cm, thin-leathery, veined, apex obtuse, surfaces glabrous; corolla tubular, somewhat bilaterally symmetric, petals erect, slightly twisted, white, ligulate, to 4 cm; stamens exserted; stigma exserted, conduplicate-spiral. Fruits to 4 cm. n = 25 (Puerto Rico, West Indies).
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Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 22 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
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Distribution

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Fla.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America.
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Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 22 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of North America @ eFloras.org
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Flora of North America Editorial Committee
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eFloras.org
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Flowering/Fruiting

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Flowering summer.
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Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 22 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of North America @ eFloras.org
editor
Flora of North America Editorial Committee
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eFloras.org
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Habitat

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Epiphytic on a variety of hosts, often in bright exposed habitats, usually abundant; 0--30m.
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copyright
Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 22 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of North America @ eFloras.org
editor
Flora of North America Editorial Committee
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eFloras.org
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Comprehensive Description

provided by North American Flora
Tillandsia utriculata L. Sp. PI. 286. 1753
TinmidsialingidataBaTtr.TTav.6. 1791. Not T. lingidala J.. 1753.
Tillandsia polyslachya Muhl. Cut. 3i,hyponym. 1813. Not T. polystachya h. 1762.
Tillandsia Bartrami Nutt. Am. Jour. Sci. 5: 292. 1822.
Tillandsia flexuosa y pallida Lindl. Bot. Reg. 9: pi. 749. 1823.
Tj/iaHrfsia rumoia Sweet, Hort. Brit. 425. 1826.
Tillandsia Nuttalliana Schultes, in R. & S. Syst. Veg. 7: 1220. 1830.
Anoplophylum fiexuosum var. pallidum Beer, Bromel. 43. 1857.
Vriesea ratnosa Beer, Bromel. 265. 1857.
Platystachvs utriculata Beer, Bromel. 266. 1857.
Vriesea utriculata Regel, Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop. 1869: 34. 1870.
Platyslachys Ehrenbergii K. Koch. Ind. Sem. Hort. Berol. 1873: App. 4: 5. 1874.
Allardtia Potockii Ant. Oesterr. Bot. Zeits. 28: 56. 1878.
Tillandsia brevibracteala Baker, Jour. Bot. 25: 346. 1887.
Tillandsia Sinlenisii Baker, Jour. Bot. 26: 12. 1888.
Plant stemless, 0.5-2 m. high; leaves many in a dense utriculate rosette, 4-10 dm. long, densely and finely pale-appressed-lepidote throughout; sheaths subovate, large; blades lineartriangular, long-acuminate, 2-7 cm. wide at the base, the outer ones usually recurving; scape erect, equaling or often exceeding the leaves, stout or slender, glabrous; scape-bracts erect, tubular-involute, barely imbricate or the uppermost sometimes remote, ovate, the lower ones linear-laminate, the upper acute; inflorescence central, amply bior tripinnate or rarely simple, lax, glabrous; primary bracts like the upper scape-bracts, not more than 4 cm. long, much shorter than the sterile base of the axillary branch, often darkviolet ; branches curvedascending; spiciform racemes up to 35 cm. long with an elongate sterile base bearing several bracts, laxly flowered; rhachis slender, undulate, sulcate, strongly flattened next the flowers; floral bracts erect, enfolding the base of the flower but very little of the rhachis, ovate, obtuse or acutish, much exceeded by the sepals, equaling or shorter than the internodes, closely and prominently nerved throughout, subcoriaceous and green with a broad, membranaceous, often dark-purple margin, ecarinate; flowers erect, appressed to the rhachis; pedicels stout, up to 5 mm. long; sepals narrowly elliptic or obovate, obtuse, 14—18 mm. long, subcoriaceous with a membranaceous margin, prominently nerved; petals tubular-erect, linear, acute, 3-4 cm. long, white; stamens and pistil exserted; capsule slenderly cylindric, acute, 4 cm. long; seed with a long apical appendage.
Type ItOCaliTy: "Habitat in Americae meridionalis arboribus."
Distribution: Georgia (Bartram) and Florida; West Indies; Tamaulipas and British Honduras; also in Venezuela.
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bibliographic citation
Lyman Bradford Smith. 1938. (XYRIDALES); BROMELIACEAE. North American flora. vol 19(2). New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY
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Tillandsia utriculata

provided by wikipedia EN

Tillandsia utriculata, commonly known as the spreading airplant or the giant airplant,[3] is a species of bromeliad that is native to Florida and Georgia in the United States, the Caribbean, southern and eastern Mexico (Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Oaxaca, the Yucatán Peninsula), Central America, and Venezuela.[2][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]

Two varieties are recognized:[2]

  1. Tillandsia utriculata subsp. pringlei (S.Watson) C.S.Gardner - eastern Mexico
  2. Tillandsia utriculata subsp. utriculata - most of species range

Florida populations of Tillandsia utriculata are highly susceptible to attack by the invasive weevil Metamasius callizona, and have been devastated virtually throughout their range.[12] Tillandsia utriculata holds more impounded water in its leaf axils, known as its tank, (up to a liter) than does any other Florida bromeliad. It is a major host of many species of aquatic invertebrates. With T, utriculata on a steady decline a loss of habit is occurring for many of these animal species.[13][14]

References

  1. ^ Isley, Paul T. (1987). Tillandsia: The World's Most Unusual Air Plants. Botanical Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-9617675-0-1.
  2. ^ a b c Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  3. ^ USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Tillandsia utriculata". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  4. ^ "Tillandsia utriculata". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 2011-11-11.
  5. ^ Flora of North America, Tillandsia utriculata Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 286. 1753.
  6. ^ Biota of North America Program, 2013 county distribution map
  7. ^ Espejo-Serna, Adolfo; López-Ferrari, Ana Rosa; Ramírez-morillo, Ivón; Holst, Bruce K.; Luther, Harry E.; Till, Walter (1 June 2004). "Checklist of Mexican Bromeliaceae with Notes on Species Distribution and Levels of Endemism". Selbyana. 25 (1): 33–86. ISSN 2689-0682. JSTOR 41760147.
  8. ^ Holst, Bruce K. (1 February 1994). "Checklist of Venezuelan Bromeliaceae with Notes on Species Distribution by State and Levels of Endemism". Selbyana. 15 (1): 132–149. ISSN 2689-0682. JSTOR 41759858.
  9. ^ Luther, Harry E. (1995). "An Annotated Checklist of the Bromeliaceae of Costa Rica". Selbyana. 16 (2): 230–234. ISSN 0361-185X. JSTOR 41759911.
  10. ^ Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
  11. ^ Carnevali, G., J. L. Tapia-Muñoz, R. Duno de Stefano & I. M. Ramírez Morillo. 2010. Flora Ilustrada de la Peninsula Yucatán: Listado Florístico 1–326.
  12. ^ Frank, J.H., Cave, R.D. (2005) Metamasius callizona is destroying Florida's native bromeliads [p. 91-101 IN:] Hoddle, M. S. (ed.) Second International Symposium on Biological Control of Arthropods, Davos, Switzerland, September 12–16, 2005. USDA Forest Service FHTET-2005-08. Vol. 1. http://fcbs.org/articles/M_Callizona_Frank_Cave.pdf
  13. ^ Frank, J. H., Fish, D. (2008) Potential biodiversity loss in Florida bromeliad phytotelmata due to Metamasius callizona (Coleoptera: Dryophthoridae), an invasive species. Florida Entomologist 91: 1-8 http://journals.fcla.edu/flaent/article/view/75750/73408
  14. ^ Cooper, T.M., Frank, J.H., Cave, R.D. (2014) Loss of phytotelmata due to an invasive bromeliad-eating weevil and its potential effects on faunal diversity and biogeochemical cycles. Acta Oecologica 54: 51-56.

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Tillandsia utriculata: Brief Summary

provided by wikipedia EN

Tillandsia utriculata, commonly known as the spreading airplant or the giant airplant, is a species of bromeliad that is native to Florida and Georgia in the United States, the Caribbean, southern and eastern Mexico (Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Oaxaca, the Yucatán Peninsula), Central America, and Venezuela.

Two varieties are recognized:

Tillandsia utriculata subsp. pringlei (S.Watson) C.S.Gardner - eastern Mexico Tillandsia utriculata subsp. utriculata - most of species range

Florida populations of Tillandsia utriculata are highly susceptible to attack by the invasive weevil Metamasius callizona, and have been devastated virtually throughout their range. Tillandsia utriculata holds more impounded water in its leaf axils, known as its tank, (up to a liter) than does any other Florida bromeliad. It is a major host of many species of aquatic invertebrates. With T, utriculata on a steady decline a loss of habit is occurring for many of these animal species.

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