Brocchinia acuminata
| Brocchinia acuminata | ||||||||||||
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| Brocchinia acuminata | ||||||||||||
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Brocchinia acuminata is a species from the genus Brocchinia . She is an ant plant .
description
Brocchinia acuminata reaches heights of 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 chestnut brown, the individual leaves lie close together, their blades are 2 to 4 centimeters wide and smooth. There are roots between their roots, which support the absorption of nutrients.
The inflorescence axis is straight, with a diameter of around 2 centimeters, the bracts are leaf-like, the leaf sheaths of the upper ones are shorter than the internodes . The bracts, whose axils the inflorescences arise, are almost leaf-like, whereas those whose axils the almost sessile flowers arise are broadly triangular. The inflorescence is a lush, loose panicle , smooth and up to a meter long.
The flowers are pointing apart, 9 to 12 millimeters long, the cap-like, around 4.5 millimeters long sepals are broadly ovate and blunt at the end, the petals are narrow, inverted ovoid. The ovary is cylindrical and subordinate.
Distribution and ecology
Brocchinia acuminata is the most common species of the genus. The species is native to Venezuela and Guiana on the peaks of some Tepuis in the Sierra Maigualida and on the plateaus in southeastern Colombia at altitudes of 600 to 2100 meters.
It grows there between bushes, on the edges of swamps and in cloud forests , and occasionally even in undergrowth. Brocchinia acuminata colonizes granite, lava and sandstone soils in equal measure and thus shows a high level of location tolerance relative to other species of the genus.
It is a so-called ant plant . In around 50% of all cases, ant colonies from the genus Camponotus live in the swollen leaf base , whose excrement, but also carcasses and the like, then serve the plants as an additional source of nutrients.
proof
- Lyman B. Smith: The Bromeliaceae of Colombia , Contributions From The United States National Herbarium, Vol. 33, 1957, p. 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 , in : Thomas J. Givnish, Kenneth J. Sytsma (Eds.): Molecular Evolution and Adaptive Radiation , Cambridge, 2000, ISBN 0521779294