Brocchinia acuminata

Brocchinia acuminata is a species of the genus Brocchinia. It is an ant plant.

Description

Brocchinia acuminata reaches stature heights up to 2 meters. The leaves are in an onion-like rosette with a diameter of 25 centimeters and a length of up to 80 centimeters. The leaf sheaths are elliptical and have a diameter of up to 20 centimeters, are dark maroon, the individual sheets are close to each other, their spreading are 2 to 4 inches wide and smooth. Between their approaches, roots that support the absorption incurred nutrients found.

The inflorescence axis is straight, with a diameter of about two centimeters, the bracts are leaf-like, at the top, the leaf sheaths shorter than the internodes. The bracts whose axils spring the buds are almost leaf-like, however, those whose shoulders spring the nearly sessile flowers, are broadly triangular. The inflorescence is a lush, loose panicle, smooth and up to a meter long.

The flowers are apart -setting, 9-12 mm long, the cap-like, about 4.5 mm long sepals are broadly ovate and blunt at the end, the petals are narrow reverse- egg-shaped. The ovary is cylindrical and inferior.

Distribution and ecology

Brocchinia acuminata is the most widespread species of the genus. The species is native to Venezuela and Guyana on the tops of some tepuis in the Sierra Maigualida and on the plateaus in southeastern Colombia at altitudes 600-2100 m.

It grows between bushes at the edges of swamps and cloud forests, sometimes even in the undergrowth. Brocchinia acuminata colonized granite, lava and sandstone soils alike, indicating a high level of habitat tolerance relative to other species of the genus.

It is with her to a so-called ant plant. In the swollen leaf base live then serve as an additional source of nutrients in approximately 50 % of all cases ant colonies in the genus Camponotus, their excrement, but also carcasses and similar plants.

Evidence

• Lyman B. Smith: The Bromeliaceae of Colombia, Contributions From The United States National Herbarium, Vol 33, 1957, pp. 82, online
• Thomas J. Givnish, Kenneth J. Sytsma, James F. Smith, William J. Hahn, David H. Benzing, Elizabeth M. Burkhardt: Molecular evolution and adaptive radiation in Brocchinia ( Bromeliaceae: Pitcairnioideae ) atop tepuis of the Guayana Shield, Thomas J. Givnish, Kenneth J. Sytsma (eds.): Molecular Evolution and Adaptive Radiation, Cambridge, 2000, ISBN 0521779294

• Bromeliaceae
• Bromeliaceae