Aechmea setigera Mart. ex Schult. & Schult. fil.

Aechmea setigera Mart.; Schultes, in R. & vS Syst. Veg. 7: 1273. 1830.
Aechmea Prieuriana Baker, Handb. Bromel. 39. 1889.
F.chinoslachys Prieuriana Brongn.; Baker, Handb. Bromel. 35, as synonym. 1889.
Plant 1-3 m. high with the inflorescence extended; leaves 1 m. long, coriaceous; sheaths suborbicular, 9 cm. long, entire, very dark-brown, covered below with a castaneous membrane of coalesced scales, densely subfloccose-lepidote above; blades ligulale, scarcely or not at all constricted at base, acute or broadly rounded with a broad triangular apiculus, 35-70 mm. wide, glabrous above, densely white-appressed-lepidote below, densely spinose-serrate toward the base, sometimes subentire toward the apex, the teeth stout, black, straight or uncinate, up to 1 1 mm. long; scape arching-decurved, 13 mm. in diameter, sparsely tomentose-lepidote; scapebracts suberect, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, coarsely spinose-serrate, 2 dm. long, many times exceeding the internodes, subchartaceous, bright-red, appressed-pale-lepidote ; inflorescence pendulous, densely bipinnate or the lowest fertile branches divided, cylindric, attaining over 1 m. in length and 9 cm. in diameter, pale-tomentulose, soon glabrous, sterile at the base and apex and at the apices of the remaining spikes; primary bracts slenderly spiniform from a small triangular base, 3 cm. long, dark-brown; spikes laxly and distichously 2-4-flowered; rhachis 25 nmi. long, terete; floral bracts subreniform, asymmetric, 1 cm. long, forming a tubular sheath about the base of the calyx, green, prominently nerved, bearing a slender, dark-brown, terminal spine up to 25 mm. long, those toward the apex of the spike sterile and gradually reduced to just the spine; flowers sessile; sepals very asymmetric, subelliptic, obtuse, 16 mm. long, entire, not mucronulate, pale-yellow-green, free; petals ligulate, obtuse, 3 cm. long, pale-greenishyellow, bearing 2 fimbriate scales at the base; filaments free; ovary much enlarged in fruit, the epigynous tube large, urceolate; oules caudate, borne near the summit of the cell; berry ellipsoid, 1 cm. long, glabrous; seeds ovoid, straight, 5 mm. long, black.
Type locality; "In sylva Gabo prope Caldeirad Prov. Rio Negro Brasiliae." Distribution: Panama; also in French Guiana and Amazonia.

Aechmea setigera is a plant species in the genus Aechmea. This species is native to Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador, and northern Brazil.