Family Bromeliaceae
Description: Perennial herbs or shrubs, sometimes rhizomatous, bisexual.
Leaves in a rosette, alternate or distichous; lamina with specialised absorptive scales; margins often spiny; stipules absent.
Flowers actinomorphic or (not in Australia) zygomorphic, in racemes, spikes or solitary, lateral or terminal. Sepals 3, free or united. Petals 3, free or (not in Australia) united, with or without basal scales. Stamens 6 in 2 series of 3, free or united or epipetalous; anthers opening by longitudinal slits. Ovary inferior or superior, 3-locular, 3-carpellate; style 1, 3-branched; placentation axile; ovules numerous.
Fruit a septicidal capsule, aggregate fruit (Ananas) or (not in Australia) berry. Seeds with or without a plumose appendage or (not in Australia) winged; embryo small, at base of copious starchy endosperm.
Distribution and occurrence: Distribution and occurrence: World: 73 genera, plus 3 intergeneric hybrids, c. 3520 species, native to (predominantly) the Americas, 1 species North Africa. Australia: (naturalised) 2 genera, 2 species Qld., N.S.W.
External links:
Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (Family: Bromeliaceae, Order: Poales)
Wikipedia Includes many horticulturally important species and cultivars, and the commercially important Ananas (pineapple).
Text by J.G. Conran, adapted by Kerry Gibbons, 12 Apr. 2023.
Taxon concept: APG IV, Flora of Australia [accessed 11 Apr. 2023]. Distribution and occurrence: Kew Plants of the World Online [accessed 11 Apr. 2023]; Australian Plant Census [accessed 6 Apr. 2023].
| One genus in NSW: Tillandsia |
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