Aechmea bracteata (Bromeliaceae)
Origin: Mexico south to Colombia & Venezuela
Selby Gardens’ Botany Department just returned from a three-week expedition to Belize, with the purpose of observing and recording epiphyte diversity around the country, covering a dizzying array of habitats and five of the country’s six political districts. One of the most common epiphytes we saw was Aechmea bracteata. They were growing on giant mahogany trees being harvested in logging concessions in Orange Walk District… we had easy access to the otherwise hard-to-reach canopy, as it had been brought down to ground level. They were blooming in Sarstoon Temash National Park, on the nation’s border with Guatemala; rooted themselves to the tangled prop roots of red mangroves, just inches about the tidal mark. They grew in crotches of cultivated trees just outside the city of Belmopan.
Everywhere we went in Belize, it seemed, Aechmea bracteata was already there and greeting us with its commanding size and cheerful red bracts. The plant itself is pretty average size for an Aechmea, but a very large epiphyte for a Floridian used to Spanish moss and giant wild pine in the live oaks. It gets its specific epithet from the decorative red bracts which run the length of the scape…the flowers themselves are quite small and a pale yellow color, and the unopened buds are a whitish-green; where the inflorescence begins the red bracts taper off and then end. The red color you see from far away (or far down, depending on your perspective) is dependent entirely on these bracts.
The size and epiphytic habit made this plant pretty easy to identify. There were some other Aechmea species as well (A. mexicana) which look similar, as well as a plethora of Androlepis skinerri. The easiest way, even from a distance, to differenciate between the Aechmea bracteata and Androlepis when not in flower is the spines; Androlepis have very small toothed leaf margins (very small spines spaced very close together,) whereas the Aechmeas have large, recurvate spines running along the edges of their leaves. The difference is marked enough to be noticeable from many meters away. Like, say, from the base of a kapok tree looking up.
Along with making a record of what we found growing around the country, this was also a collecting trip for Selby Gardens, both for our herbarium and living collection. Botanist Bruce Holst has made many collecting trips to Belize, and a lot of the plants growing here at the Gardens started out their lives down there. Here’s a tip: next time you’re walking around the Gardens, see if you can find the accession tags next to the plants. They’re the small metal tags with a barcode on them; not the larger display signs. If the accession tag says “Belize” on it, then you know that plant was collected in Belize and brought back here, most likely by Bruce. And if you’d like to see an Aechmea bracteata in flower, we have several littered about…there’s a clump growing in Mrs. Selby’s coastal bamboo just west of the Selby home (our café) which have just come into bloom.
Text by David Troxell