Belongs within: Poales.
Contains: Tillandsioideae, Hechtia, Pitcairnioideae, Puya, Bromelioideae.
The Bromeliaceae, bromeliads, are a family of herbaceous plants found primarily in the neotropics (a single species, Pitcairnia feliciana, is native to west Africa). Many bromeliads have a vase- or tank-like growth form that encourages the formation of phytotelmata (pooling of water within plants). Numerous species of the family are grown as ornamentals. Bromelites dolinskii is a fossil stem from the Eocene of Ukraine that may represent the earliest known bromeliad (Collinson et al. 1993).
The Bromeliaceae have been divided between three subfamilies; however, the Pitcairnioideae as historically recognised (with spiny leaves, capsular fruits and wingless seeds) are paraphyletic with regard to the rest of the family. The genus Brocchinia is basal to other bromeliads; species of Brocchinia are mostly found growing on sand and sandstone in northen South America from Colombia to Guyana and northern Brazil. Brocchinia reducta is potentially carnivorous with a waxy surface on the leaves that leads to insects becoming trapped in the phytotelma. Brocchinia uaipanensis, found growing at the summits of Venezuelan tepuis, is a semi-succulent taxon historically awarded its own genus Ayensua.
Lindmania is a primarily Venezuelan genus bearing flowers with twisted-convolute sepals, and petals mostly many times longer than the sepals. Navia is another tepui-dwelling genus with toothed leaf margins (Eggli & Nyffeler 2020).
Characters (Luther & Brown): Herbs, perennial, terrestrial, among or on rocks, or epiphytic. Roots usually present, often poorly developed in epiphytic taxa. Stems very short to very elongate. Leaves usually spirally arranged, forming water-impounding rosette, occasionally lax and/or two-ranked, simple, margins serrate or entire, trichomes nearly always covering surface, peltate, water-absorbing. Inflorescences terminal or lateral, sessile to scapose, simple or compound; bracts usually present, conspicuous. Flowers bisexual or functionally unisexual, radially symmetric to slightly bilaterally symmetric; perianth in two distinct sets of three; stamens in two series of three; ovary inferior or superior; placentation axile. Fruits capsules or berries. Seeds plumose, winged, or unappendaged.
<==Bromeliaceae [Bromeliales, Tillandsiaceae]
| i. s.: Bromelites dolinskii Schmalhausen 1883CBH93
| PseudoananasEN20
| ×PseudoanameaEN20
|--Brocchinia [Brocchinioideae]SHZ05
| | i. s.: B. uaipanensis [=Ayensua uaipanensis]EN20
| |--+--B. micrantha (Baker) Mez 1894SHZ05
| | `--B. steyermarkii Smith 1951SHZ05
| `--+--B. reducta Baker 1882SHZ05
| `--B. tatei Smith 1946SHZ05
`--+--Lindmania [Lindmanioideae]SHZ05
| `--L. guianensisBS05
`--+--TillandsioideaeSHZ05
`--+--HechtiaBS05
|--×Dycktia Beadle 1991EN20
|--×Enchotia Lemaiux 2011EN20
|--×Hechcohnia Anderson ex Grant 1998EN20
`--+--+--BrewcariaSHZ05
| |--‘Brocchinia’ serrataSHZ05
| `--Navia [Navioideae]SHZ05
| `--N. splendensEN20
`--+--PitcairnioideaeEN20
|--×Puckia Butcher 2002 [incl. Dyckipu (nom. inv.)]EN20
|--×Orthocohnia Lawn 2013EN20
|--×Pucohnia Anderson ex Beadle 1991EN20
`--+--PuyaSHZ05
`--BromelioideaeSHZ05
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[BS05] Barfuss, M. H. J., R. Samuel, W. Till & T. F. Stuessy. 2005. Phylogenetic relationships in subfamily Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae) based on DNA sequence data from seven plastid regions. American Journal of Botany 92 (2): 337–351.
[CBH93] Collinson, M. E., M. C. Boulter & P. L. Holmes. 1993. Magnoliophyta (‘Angiospermae’). In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 809–841. Chapman & Hall: London.
[EN20] Eggli, U., & R. Nyffeler (eds) 2020. Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Monocotyledons 2nd ed. Springer.
[SHZ05] Schulte, K., R. Horres & G. Zizka. 2005. Molecular phylogeny of Bromelioideae and its implications on biogeography and the evolution of CAM in the family (Poales, Bromeliaceae). Senckenbergiana Biologica 85 (1): 113–125.