Aechmea pubescens Baker

Aechmea pubescens Baker, Jour. Bot. 17: 135. 1879
? Aechmea StandUyi Cufod. Arch. Bot. 9: 182. 1933.
Plant 4-10 dm. high; leaves few in a dense utriculate suburccolatc rosette, up to I m. long, green and chartaceous except for a broad pale subcoriaceous channeled median portion, the outer leaves bladeless, squamiform; sheaths broadly elliptic, 15 cm. long, densely brownpunctulate; blades narrowed for nearly half the distance above the base but not truly pctiolatc, ligulate, acute, apiculate, 25-35 mm. wide, white-appressed-lepidote below, soon glabrous above, the basal half laxly serrate with straight or retrorsc green teeth up to 5 mm. long, the apical half subentire; scape erect, slender, wbite-lanate, soon glabrous; scape-bracts erect, tubular-involute, densely imbricate, lance-ovate, acute, entire, membranaceous, bright-red, palc-appresscd-lepidote; inflorescence paniculate, bipinnate or the lower branches divided, oblong or pyramidal, 10-35 cm. long, fertile throughout, lax at least toward the base, at first densely white-floccosc-Iepidote throughout but often becoming nearly glabrous at malurily; primary bracts like the scape bracts but narrower, the lower ones equaling or exceeding Ihc axillary branches, the upper ones no larger than the floral bracts; spikes linear, densely and distichously 8-I6-flowercd;rhachisstraight or slightly geniculate, flattened next the flowers but not excavated; floral bracts spreading and exposing the rhachis, broadly ovate, acuminate, pungent, 10-13 mm. long, equaling or exceeding the sepals, entire with margins free from the rhachis, navicular, carinate toward the apex, subcoriaceous, prominently nerved; flowers sessile; sepals strongly asymmetric, subtriangular, 6 mm. long, mucronulate, strongly carinate; petals ligulate, obtuse, 10 mm. long, bearing 2 fimbriate scales high above the base; stamens much shorter than the petals; ovary subellipsoid, 3-angled, slightly enlarged in fruit; ovules attached near the summit of the cell.
Typb locality: Portobello, Panama.
Distribution: Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama; also in Colombia.

Aechmea pubescens is a species of flowering plant in the Bromeliaceae family. This species is native to Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela.