Commemorating Swedish botanist Veet Wittrock.
Leaves in a rosette, serrate; blades ligulate. Scape evident and with leaf-like bracts. Inflorescence compound, very densely head-like in centre of primary bracts; branches very short; flowers stalkless; sepals mainly free, more or less united and asymmetric; petals united, appendaged; stamens included, filament adnate to petals. Fruit a berry.
Only one species is commonly grown, W. amazonica (Baker) L.B. Sm. which resembles Nidularium innocentii var. innocentii except for the presence of petal appendages. Also known in cultivation as W. smithii, which was reduced to synonymy in 1993. Leme, 1997, now treats this species as a Nidularium.
Seed or offset.
Leaves spiny; petals united; bracts of stems and flower stalks leaf-like, often coloured.
About 11 species from eastern Brazil.
Source: (2005). Bromeliaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
