Pineapples

Since I already am on a bromeliad kick today, I thought I may as well share some a shot of a variegated pineapple (Ananas comosus) growing in Longwood Gardens' conservatory.

There it is, that wonderful tropical fruit.  Every time I went to Hawaii this year for site work, I couldn't wait to run across to the ABC store and pick up my day's supply of pineapple.  It's a simple but undeniable thrill to be able to eat an exotic fruit like this and know that it was harvested a mere 60 miles away. 

 

(ABC Stores, by the way, are a chain of Hawaiian bodegas where you can buy food, magazines, sunscreen as well as alcohol.  It's not just a liquor store, like our east coast ABC stores.  I had to explain this recently to an accountant, who saw frequent trips to the ABC store claimed as travel expenses, and began to wonder if I didn't have a drinking problem!)

Vriesea imperialis

Like a bad magician, I am giving away one of my tricks with this photo.

I like to think that some of you readers assume I just happen to know every plant that exists (or a lot of them, at least).  But that's the great thing about botanical gardens - they have tags.  And with digital cameras, you can take as many photos as you want and not worry about wasting film!  So I have countless pics like this one - of a plant in question and it's accompanying tag.

However, hopefully regular readers to PC and NYPAOS would recognize a bromeliad when they saw one.  I feel like I'm always posting about them, though that's hardly the case.  This specimen, also called imperial Vriesea, was growing at the Waimea Valley Botanical Garden, a fantastic botanical garden I mentioned just last week as well.

Disappointingly, these specimens were just beginning to flower.  The inflorescences (pollinated by bats, usually) reach heights as high as 3 meters.

Portea

Last week, at Longwood Gardens, I saw the bromeliad below, which is called Portea and is native to Brazil. 

It reminded me of a plant I had seen at the Philadelphia Flower Show last year and when I got home to my computer, I checked the NYPAOS archives.  Turns out I was thinking of Aechmea. 

The similarities are great -- they are both in the Bromeliadaceae family, which means they are closely related to pineapples, and they both have hard, serrated leaves.  Aechmeas are more popular -- most people have seen the 'Silver Vase' Aechmea before - but Porteas are equally prolific in their native habitat on the east coast of Brazil.

Alcantarea odorata

I can't yet show photos of this plant being used in the Hawaii project, but I am going to share this pic of Alcantarea odorata, taken at a plant nursery in Oahu.  

I love the soft, silvery hue of this plant, a member of the Bromeliad family.  Like other bromeliads, this plant is very drought tolerant, as it can survive off of water it collects in the vase-like base of the rosette of leaves.

This species is endemic to Brazil, and is found on rock, dry mountainsides.  The species name, odorata, refers to the fragrant, chandelier-like flower that grows from the center of the rosette.