Androlepis skinneri (K. Koch) Brongn. ex Houllet

Androlepis skinneri (K. Koch) Brongn.; Houllet,
Rev. Hortic. 42: 12. 1870.
Pothuava Skinneri K. Koch, Wochenschr. GSrtn. 4; 190. 1861. Billbergia Skinneri K. Koch, Wochenschr. Gartn. 4: 190. 1861. Aechmea leucostachys Baker, Handb. Bromel. 39. 1889. Aechmea Skinneri Baker, Handb. Bromel. 49. 1889.
Leaves up to 20, 6 dm. long; sheaths large, suborbictilar, dark-brown, ^•ery closely and finely brown-lepidote; blades ligulate, acute or acuminate, 5-8 cm. wide, glabrous above, closely and finely pale-lepidote beneath, densely spinidose-serrate; scape up to 3 dm. long, stout, white-farinose; scape-bracts large, imbricate, elliptic, acute, pungent, spinulose-serrate, stramineous, the lower erect, the upper with their upper halves deflexed; inflorescence la.ly compound, subcylindric, 2 dm. long, 3 cm. in diameter; primary bracts linear-triangular, acuminate, entire, membranaceous, farinose, the lowest exceeding the axillary branches; branches very short, suberect, subglobosely I-5-flowered; floral bracts minute, sometimes wanting; flowers up to 2 cm. long; sepals broadly triangular with a large wing, 5 mm. long, strongly convex, thick, coriaceous, green, farinose; petals erect at anthesis, elliptic, 1 cm. long, flavous; ovary stoutly ovoid or cylindric, much enlarged in fruit.
Type locality: Described from cultivation and doubtfully referred to Mexico.
Distribution: Guatemala.

Androlepis donnell-smithii (Baker) Mez, in DC
Monog. Phan. 9: 161. 1896.
Aechmea Donnell-Smithii Baker, Jour. Bot. 28: 305. 1890.
Plant over 1 m. high; leaves imperfectly known, certainly 1 m. long; blades ligulate, acute or acuminate, 4-8 cm. wide, flat, involute-pungent, densely serrate with spines up to 3 mm. long, glabrous above, finely pale-lepidote beneath between the nerves; scape 1 cm. or more in diameter, over 4 dm. long, buff-furfuraceous; scape-bracts lanceolate, acute, much longer than the internodes, membranaceous toward the base, much thickened and coriaceous toward the apex, pungent, densely and closely pale-lepidote; inflorescence amply compound, usually dense, narrowly pyramidal or cylindric, 3-6 dm. long, up to 15 cm. in diameter at the base, f urf uraceous ; primary bracts linear, membranaceous, deflexed, the lowest ones often longer than the axillary branches, the upper much reduced; branches spreading, well developed, the lower ones usually divided; spikes distinctly longer than broad, usually lax, 4-5-flowered; floral bracts minute, shorter than the ovary, ovate or triangular, acuminate, pungent; flowers suberect, up to 14 mm. long; sepals broadly triangular with a large wing, 5-6 mm. long, thick, coriaceous, strongly convex, soon glabrous; petals elliptic, 1 cm. long; stamens slightly shorter than the petals; ovary usually not much enlarged in fruit.
TvpB locality: Rio Dolce, Dept. Livingston, Guatemala, near sea-lcvcl. Distribution: Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica.

Androlepis skinneri is a plant species native to southern Mexico (Veracruz, Chiapas, Tabasco) and Central America (Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua). This is one of the few Bromelioideae species that is dioecious.