Bromeliaceae
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- "Bromeliad" redirects here. For the trilogy of children's books, see The Bromeliad.
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| Image:Pineapple1.JPG pineapple, one of the member of the Bromeliaceae family
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Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) is a large family of flowering plants native to the tropical and warm temperate New World. The family includes both epiphytes, such as Spanish moss Tillandsia usneoides, and ground plants, such as the Pineapple Ananas comosus. Christopher Columbus was the first European to come into contact with the pineapple and took it back to Europe after his first voyage. Many bromeliads are able to store water in a "tank" formed by their tightly-overlapping leaf bases. However, the family is diverse enough to include the tank bromeliads, grey-leaved epiphytic Tillandsia species which gather water only from leaf structures called trichomes, and even a large number of desert-dwelling succulents.
The largest bromeliad is Puya raimondii, which reaches 3-4 m tall in vegetative growth with a flower spike 9-10 m tall, and the smallest is probably Spanish moss.
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[edit] Genera
[edit] Images of bromeliads
[edit] Cultivation and uses
Only one bromeliad, the pineapple Ananas comosus, is a commercially important food crop. Many other bromeliads are popular ornamental plants, grown as both garden and house plants.
[edit] External links
- LUTHER, H. E. (2002) An Alphabetical List of Bromeliad Binomials The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota, Florida, USA. Published by The Bromeliad Society International.
- Bromeliaceae in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. Published by Delta-intkey (2002-06-18)
- The Bromeliad Society International
- Puya raimondii photos
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