Werauhia fibrosa Kessous
Creators: name: Kessous, Igor M.
name: Costa, Andrea F.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Liliopsida
Poales
Bromeliaceae
Werauhia
Werauhia fibrosa

description: 4.1 Werauhia fibrosa (L.B.Sm.) Kessous & A.F.Costa. comb nov. (Fig. 8)
Basionym: — Vriesea fibrosa Smith (1957: 315). Type: — VENEZUELA. Amazonas: Cerro Sipapo (Paraque), frequent along open banks of lower Cano Negro, 25 December 1948, Maguire & Politi 27912 (lectotype US!, isolectotype NY!—Designated by Smith & Downs 1977: 1163).
Description:—Plant terrestrial, with straight fibers at the base of the rosette (the remains of the veins of the decayed leaf sheath), flowering 60−65 cm high. Leaves 10−20 in number, forming an open utriculate rosette; sheath ovatetriangular, 4.5−6 × 3−4 cm, densely lepidote on both faces; blade very narrowly subtriangular, 21−37 × 8−18 mm, apex long attenuately acute. Inflorescence simple, 5–9 flowered, 45–55 cm long, lax, erect; peduncle erect, 35−40 cm long and 4–4.7 mm in diameter, glabrous; peduncle bracts erect, imbricate at the base to remote distally, narrowly elliptic, 30−45 × 13−14 mm, lepidote on adaxial surface; rachis straight to slightly flexuous, ca. 8 cm long, 3.2–3.9 mm in diameter. Floral bracts orbicular, apex rounded, ca. 20 × 20 mm, slightly carinate at the apex, much shorter than the sepals, with a yellowish mucilage, lepidote on the adaxial surface. Flowers ca. 35 mm long, 12–18 mm apart, distichous, suberect, secund; sepals ovate, 23–25 × 12 mm, free, slightly carinate at the apex, symmetric, lepidote on the margins of the abaxial surface, the adaxial surface with gland-like indument; petals narrowly elliptic, obtuse, ca. 32 × 10 mm, greenish-white, reddish towards the apex, free; petal appendages ca. 5.5 mm, adnate at the base of the petals for 3 mm, entire, with free lobe spatulate, reduced dactyloid one-fingered; stamens equaling the petals (in sicco); filament ca. 15 mm long, adnate to the petals for ca. 1.7 mm; anther ca. 6 × 1.9 mm; ovary ellipsoid, ca. 10 × 6 mm; style ca. 20 mm long; stigma cupulate. Fruits unknown. Distribution: —This species occurs terrestrially on sand, in the region of the state of Amazonas, Venezuela, ca. 1,400 m above sea level.
Taxonomic and nomenclatural notes: —Despite the lack of detailed information in the protologue and few available specimens, we observed a cupulate stigma in the type specimen (Maguire & Politi 27912) (Fig. 8D). Within Tillandsioideae, only members of the genus Werauhia have this type of stigma (Grant 1995a, Barfuss et al. 2016), leading us to propose this new combination in Werauhia.
Vriesea has a convolute-bladed stigma, which is the most important distinguishing feature between these two genera. In addition, we observed the presence of dactyloid petal appendages (one-fingered) (Fig. 8D), typical for Werauhia. Furthermore, W. fibrosa fits the geographical distribution of other species in this genus (northern South America). This species is closely related to Werauhia graminifolia (Mez & Werckl.) Grant (1995a: 32), particularly in the graminoid rosette and the shape of the inflorescence.
Etymology: —The specific epithet “ fibrosa ” refers to the fibers at the base of the rosette (the remains of the veins of the decayed leaf sheath).
Representative Specimen Examined: — VENEZUELA. Amazonas, Cerro Sipapo (Paráque), 1 January 1949, Maguire & Politi 28108 (US, NY).
description: Published as part of Kessous, Igor M. & Costa, Andrea F., 2023, Novelties in " incertae sedis " Vriesea (Bromeliaceae: Tillandsioideae): Redescriptions, new combinations and nomenclatural revision, pp. 71-101 in Phytotaxa 585 (2) on page 94, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.585.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7681555