Deuterocohnia meziana Kuntze ex Mez (1896: 465)

Deuterocohnia meziana Kuntze ex Mez (1896: 465) View in CoL .

Type :— BRAZIL. Mato-Grosso: Corumbá, August 1892, Kuntze s.n. (holotype: NY! (2 sheets), photo in GH!, R! , isotype: B! ).

Plants evergreen herbaceous chamaephytes, polycarpic, terrestrial or saxicolous, acaulescent or caulescent, often forming groups of plants by sympodial branching. Leaves numerous, rosulate. Rosettes 20–70 × 25–100 cm. Leaf sheaths 3–5 × 6–10 cm. Leaf blades 25–80 (–100) × 4–9 cm, recurved, abaxially convex, adaxially plane to concave, lepidote mainly on the abaxial surface, greenish or greyish, spinose-serrate, spines greenish to brownish, 4–10 mm, antrorse or retrorse. Peduncle present, 60–120 cm × 5–10 mm, erect, perennial, woody. Peduncle bracts 5–8 cm × 5–8 mm, upper ones shorter than the internodes, entire or spinose-serrate, spines brownish, 1–2 mm, antrorse. Inflorescence branched, 40–70 cm long, compound, perennial, branches of 1 st to 4 th order. Primary bracts 3–4 × 2–3 mm, shorter than the sterile base of the primary branches, triangular to ovate, narrowly acute to acute, entire, glabrous. Primary branches up to 40 cm long, ascending to inclined, laxely flowered spikes or racemes, axis visible, 10–40-flowered. Floral bracts 1–2 (–5) × 3–4 mm, much shorter than the sepals, broadly ovate, acute, mucronate, glabrous, reddish or brownish. Flowers (20–) 30–50 mm long, tubular, sessile to distinctly pedicellate, pedicels 0.5–15 mm long. Sepals (7–) 10–20 mm × 5–6 mm, ovate to lanceolate, obtuse, glabrous, with greenish, orange or reddish colours. Petals (20–) 30–45 (–50) × 7–10 mm, erect during anthesis, afterwards conspicuously spirally twisted, with yellowish, orange or reddish colours, with greenish apex. Petal appendages 4–6 mm long, with short fringes. Filaments (15–) 25–35 mm long. Anthers 4–5 mm long, erect, greenish. Pollen in monads, oblate, sulcate. Ovary 3–5 mm long. Style (15–) 25–40 mm long, filiform. Fruits 10–12 × 6–8 mm, brownish. Seeds 3–4 mm long, fusiform, dorsally and apically alate, brownish, the appendage fawn.

Distribution: — BOLIVIA. Depts. Cochabamba, Chuquisaca, Santa Cruz, Tarija. BRAZIL. Est. Mato Grosso do Sul. PARAGUAY. Depts. Alto Paraguay, Amambay, Boquerón, Concepción. 14°30′– 22°45' S; 56°00′– 65°15' W.

Key to the subspecies

1. Sepals orange, petals orange to yellow with green tip. Lower eastern Andean slopes and lowlands of SE Bolivia (Chiquitania), Dept. Santa Cruz, adjacent areas in W Brazil and southwards along the Río Paraguay to N Paraguay, Dept. Amambay, Concepción. At elevations from 150 to 1400 m ............................................................... D. meziana subsp. meziana ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 )

- Flowers differently coloured ................................................................................................................................................. 2.

2. Sepals green, petals yellow with green tip; flowers shortly to conspicuously pedicellate (to 15 mm). Inter-Andean dry valleys of Chuquisaca, Bolivia. At elevations from 900 to 1400 m ................................. D. meziana subsp. pedicellata ( Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 )

- Flowers reddish, sessile to shortly pedicellate (to 3 mm) ..................................................................................................... 3.

3. Sepals rose, petals rose to magenta with green tip; N of Paraguay (Grand Chaco), Dept. Boqueron, Alto Paraguay and Presidente Hayes. At elevations from 100 to 300 m ............................................................ D. meziana subsp. vogtii ( Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 )

- Sepals magenta to carmine, petals magenta to carmine with green tip. Bolivian Andes, close to the Andean knee, Dept. Cochabamba and Santa Cruz. At elevations from 1300 to 2200 m ............ D. meziana subsp. carmineo-viridiflora ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 )