SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOLUME 126, NUMBER 1 iWarp "^aux ®ialcott jFunti for ^utilications! in JBotanp THE BROMELIACEAE OF BRAZIL By LYMAN B. SMITH Department of Botany, U. S. National Museum With 128 illustrations by Robert J. Downs U. S. Department of Agriculture (Publication 4184) CITY OF WASHINGTON PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION SEPTEMBER 7, 1955 V^^^i Both (^affimow (pnee BAliTIMORB, KD., U. S. A. PREFACE This paper, by Dr. Lyman B. Smith, associate curator of the De- partment of Botany, U. S. National Museum, is based on 25 years of study in the United States, Europe, and Brazil. Much of the paper has been derived from an unpublished manuscript prepared for the "Flora Brasilica" of the Instituto de Botanica of Sao Paulo. How- ever, in order to make a more compact work appropriate for the field as well as the herbarium, bibliography has been limited to that strictly essential in Brazil and descriptions have been eliminated in favor of ampler keys. Illustrations are provided in a proportion slightly better than one to every five species but are irregularly apportioned in order to sup- port the key to the best effect and to cover all the 39 new species proposed. Jason R. Swallen Head Curator, Department of Botany U. S. National Museum CONTENTS Page Preface iii Introduction i Material 3 Geographical citations 5 Distribution and origin 6 Economic aspects 9 Horticulture 10 Bromeliad malaria 11 Preliminary records 12 Systematic treatment 217 Excluded and doubtful taxa 255 Localities cited 258 Index 273 TEXT FIGURES Map : Distribution of Bromeliaceae in Brazil 7 Fig. I. Puya floccosa 42 2. Encholirium bradeanum 42 3. Encholirium spectabile 43 4. Cottendorfia florida 43 5. Lindmania guianensis 45 6. Connellia quelchii 45 7. Deuterocohnia meziana 49 8. Pitcairnia flammea var. flammea 49 9. Pitcairnia staminea 53 10. Pitcairnia uaupensis 53 11. Pitcairnia caricifolia 55 12. Brocchinia reducta 55 13. Dyckia maritima 63 14. Dyckia leptostachya 63 15. Dyckia encholirioides var. encholirioides 66 16. Dyckia heloisae 66 17. Dyckia tuberosa var. tuberosa 6y 18. Dyckia macedoi 67 19. Dyckia minarum 70 20. Dyckia weddelliana 70 21. Navia lopezii yy 22. Tillandsia adpressiflora yy 23. Tillandsia didisticha 80 24. Tillandsia geminiflora var. geminiflora 80 25. Tillandsia stricta var. stricta 88 26. Tillandsia anceps 88 27. Tillandsia streptocarpa 93 28. Tillandsia usneoides 93 29. Tillandsia aeris-incola 97 30. Tillandsia paracusis 97 vi SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I26 Page 31. Vriesia rodigasiana no 32. Vriesia sceptrum no 33. Vriesia friburgensis var. paludosa 114 34. Vriesia procera var. procera 114 35. Vriesia gigantea 117 36. Vriesia philippocoburgii var. philippocoburgii 117 37. Vriesia hoehneana 119 38. Vriesia amazonica 119 39. Vriesia hieroglyphica 121 40. Vriesia segadas-viannae 121 41. Vriesia erythrodactylon 125 42. Vriesia carinata 125 43. Vriesia psittacina var. psittacina 128 44. Vriesia ensiformis var. ensiformis 128 45. Vriesia jonghii 131 46. Vriesia platynema var. platynema 131 47. Vriesia scalaris 135 48. Vriesia corcovadensis 135 49. Guzmania minor 139 50. Catopsis berteroniana 139 51. Fernseea itatiaiae 141 52. Araeococcus goeldianus 141 53. Streptocalyx floribundus 143 54. Streptocalyx poeppigii 143 55. Neoregelia laevis 150 56. Neoregelia hoehneana 150 57. Neoregelia leprosa 151 58. Neoregelia fluminensis 151 59. Neoregelia uleana 153 60. Neoregelia kuhlmannii 153 61. Neoregelia macrosepala 154 62. Neoregelia oligantha 154 63. Neoregelia cruenta 155 64. Neoregelia concentrica 155 65. Neoregelia pauciflora 156 66. Neoregelia melanodonta 156 67. Cryptanthus duartei 159 68. Cryptanthus pseudoscaposus 1 59 69. Cryptanthus minarum 162 70. Cryptanthus marginatus 162 71. Cryptanthus beuckeri 163 72. Cryptanthus pickelii 163 73. Nidularium burchellii 166 74. Nidularium billbergioides 166 75. Nidularium innocentii var. innocentii 169 76. Nidularium itatiaiae 169 77. Nidularium apiculatum var. apiculatum 173 78. Andrea selloana 173 79. Bromelia laciniosa 176 NO. I CONTENTS Vll Page 80. Bromelia interior 176 81. Bromelia villosa 178 82. Acanthostachys strobilacea 178 83. Orthophytum rubrum 180 84. Orthophytum maracasense 180 85. Orthophytum disjunctum 182 86. Canistrum cyathiforme 182 87. Canistrum lindenii var. roseum f. procerum 185 88. Wittrockia superba 185 89. Wittrockia campos-portoi 187 90. Wittrockia azurea 187 91. Hohenbergia stellata 189 92. Hohenbergia salzmannii 189 93. Hohenbergia augusta 192 94. Gravisia aquilega 192 95. Aechmea podantha 204 96. Aechmea mutica 204 97. Aechmea mertensii 207 98. Aechmea stelligera 207 99. Aechmea lingulata var. lingulata 212 100. Aechmea bicolor 212 loi. Aechmea distichantha var. distichantha 218 102. Aechmea pectinata 218 103. Aechmea nudicauHs var. cuspidata 223 104. Aechmea ornata var. hoehneana 223 105. Aechmea nervata 225 106. Aechmea triangularis 225 107. Aechmea maculata 226 108. Aechmea chlorophylla 226 109. Aechmea multiflora 228 1 10. Aechmea leucolepis 228 111. Aechmea castanea 230 112. Quesnelia arvensis 230 1 13- Quesnelia edmundoi 232 1 14. Quesnelia liboniana 232 115. Billbergia vittata 239 1 16. Billbergia amoena var. amoena 239 117. Billbergia iridifolia var. iridifolia 241 118. Billbergia distachia var. distachia 241 119. Billbergia nutans var. nutans 243 120. Billbergia minarum 243 121. Billbergia pyramidalis var. pyramidalis 245 122. Billbergia fosteriana 245 123. Billbergia zebrina 249 124. Neoglaziovia variegata 249 125. Portea leptantha 251 126. Pseudananas sagenarius 251 127. Ananas fritz-muelleri 254 128. Ananas ananassoides var. ananassoides 254 iWarp ^a«x Maltott jfuntt (or ^ubUcationst in iiiotanp THE BROMELIACEAE OF BRAZIL By LYMAN B. SMITH Department of Botany U. S. National Museum With 128 illustrations by Robert J. Downs V. S. Department of Agriculture INTRODUCTION The present paper is written to organize the mass of recent species of Brazilian Bromeliaceae in relation to past works to form a new basis for other branches of biological study. In doing this it takes into account the interest in the discovery and propagation of brome- liads for economic and horticultural purposes and at the same time the necessity for their destruction in limited areas to effect the control of malaria. I am indebted to a great number of people and institu- tions for help in the first instance and to the Serviqo Nacional de Malaria of Brazil and to the Rockefeller Foundation for an under- standing of the public health situation. The Bromeliaceae of Brazil have been covered exhaustively three different times in the last 60 years by their great monographer, Carl Mez.^ His most recent treatment in 1934 and 1935 in the Pflanzen- reich indicated nearly 500 species as native to Brazil, yet since then 135 additional species have been discovered and still continue to ap- pear so rapidly that 39 of them could not be published before the present paper. This proportionately great increase in our knowledge of the group is due to two sources unavailable to Mez—intensive collections since his monograph, and large collections in the herbaria of the United States and Brazil which, for some reason, he failed to see although they mainly predated his work. Since 1935 the collecting of brome- liads by systematic botanists has continued at much the same pace as before and has resulted in additions to the Brazilian flora, but the great increase in information has come from the horticultural side through the intensive collections of Mulford and Racine Foster and i/» Martius, Flora Brasiliensis 3, pt. 3: 173-634. 1891-1894. In De Candolle, Monographiae Phanerogamarum 9: 1-990. 1896. In Engler, Das Pflanzenreich IV. 32 : 1-667. 1934-1935- SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. 126, NO. 1 2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I26 in public health through the researches of Father Raulino Reitz and Dr. Henrique Pimenta Veloso. The Fosters have traveled widely in search of striking bromeliads but have made their greatest efforts in the rain forest area of extreme eastern Brazil, the home of the great majority of the ornamental species. I gratefully acknowledge that they have not forgotten to collect the lowly "botanicals" or nonglamorous types at the same time. Also they have the rewarding system of collecting sterile plants, which on blooming years later often prove to be species of exceptional interest. While the general collector frequently neglects or ignores bromeliads because of the great difficulty of collecting and preserving them, the Fosters have concentrated on them to the practical exclusion of all other families. As a result more than half of the new species described since 1935 have been based upon their collections. Reitz and Veloso have concentrated their efforts on the bromeliads of Santa Catarina in connection with the campaign undertaken in recent years by the Servigo Nacional de Malaria. Although Reitz has discovered a number of new species, he has made a much more important contribution to our knowledge of the variation and distribu- tion of species already known. In fact, he has changed the status of the bromeliad flora there from the least known in the eastern rain forest to equality with the best. Veloso, using Reitz's taxonomic studies as a base, has given us a detailed picture of the ecology of the Santa Catarina bromeliads (Anais Botanicos do Herbario "Bar- bosa Rodrigues": 187-270. 1952) which has yet to be approached elsewhere. Mez saw the Bromeliaceae in practically all the important European herbaria and from near