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March 1, 2007 : Aechmea distichantha var. schlumbergeri
Keywords: Bromeliaceae | Aechmea distichantha Lem. var. schlumbergeri E.Morren ex Mez | Huntington Botanical Garden Accession #31235 | cultivated in San Marino, California
When visiting the Huntington Botanical Gardens, I didn't stray too far from the Desert Garden for most of my all-too-brief visit. However, today's plant interrupted an otherwise quick walk through the Jungle Garden; it leapt out from the mass of dark shadows and green foliage. This exact plant is also in this photograph, part of Huntington's What's In Bloom series of images.
I'm not able to find much relevant information on variety schlumbergeri, other than a few herbarium specimens of cultivated material which mention a Portuguese common name of caraguatá. Brazilian vase-plant is suggested as an English common name for the species by Wikipedia, though other sites simply use “bromeliad”.
Also noted by Wikipedia is the wide distribution range of the species: Uruguay, Paraguay, northern Argentina and Brazil (where it makes specific mention of the Cerrado, a tropical savanna). For most people in the northern hemisphere, its growing requirements restrict it to being an indoor plant; the University of Florida extension service provides a factsheet with some suggestions for care in that regard.
Do watch out for the jumping spiders, though. See: Romero, GQ. 2006. Geographic Range, Habitats, and Host Plants of Bromeliad-Living Jumping Spiders (Salticidae) (PDF). Biotropica. 38(4): 522-530.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at March 1, 2007 6:12 AM
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Comments
Posted by: Beverley at March 1, 2007 7:08 AM
That's cute.
Its about one-of-a-kind as much as Mt. Laurel flowers are before they open.
Very unique.
The bits of blue add nice accents.
Posted by: Mario at March 1, 2007 7:24 AM
Beautiful. Looks like a stigma inside the blue bits, wondering what the red & brown bits are anatomically?
Posted by: ingrid at March 1, 2007 7:35 AM
hi Daniel, I look every day at your site and the beautiful images, make effort to follow what you write because, on one side do not know enough good English and at this moment am engaged to recover my French for my French Blog, would like to put the link to your site to be able to put the photos you publish on the French site and possibly that Italian, with a certain regularity, if you are not sorry, hi and wishes,
Gabriella
Posted by: Gabriella at March 1, 2007 10:16 AM
Ingrid, I think the brown bits are simply senescent petals. The pink bits, I believe, are bracts (compare with this photograph of Billbergia and imagine everything in that photo much compressed).
Gabriella, please go ahead.
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin 
at March 1, 2007 11:54 AM
great showing. Ruth
Posted by: Ruth Geoghegan at March 1, 2007 12:12 PM
Thanks Daniel!
Posted by: ingrid at March 1, 2007 4:31 PM
Daniel, I do not understand the answer to me, excuse,
Gabriella
Posted by: Gabriella at March 2, 2007 7:36 AM
Gabriella: yes, you can use at least some of the photos. The ones I take from UBC have this license attached. The photographs from other contributors usually have similar licenses, but it is best to check the license with the original image (i.e., follow the link to the original image and view the license)
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin at March 2, 2007 8:26 AM
Please share your comments about the photograph(s) and accompanying write-up. Telling a story about the subject of the photograph(s) is also much appreciated! If you have a gardening question, the best place to ask is on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. Thank you!
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Aechmea distichantha - Z9 - RHS Index of Garden Plants, Griffiths
Aechmea distichantha - Z9-11 - A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, Brickell, Cole, Zuk