Friday, June 9, 2017

Bromiliad from Hawaii


The Bromeliaceae include the pineapple. There are 3475 known species. Quoting from the Wikipedia article Bromeliaceae:
They are among the basal families within the Poales and are unique because they are the only family within the order that has septal nectaries and inferior ovaries.[4] These inferior ovaries characterize the Bromelioideae, a subfamily of the Bromeliaceae.[5] The family includes both epiphytes, such as Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides), and terrestrial species, such as the pineapple (Ananas comosus). Many bromeliads are able to store water in a structure formed by their tightly-overlapping leaf bases. However, the family is diverse enough to include the tank bromeliads, grey-leaved epiphyte Tillandsia species that gather water only from leaf structures called trichomes, and a large number of desert-dwelling succulents.
I learn something every day.

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