Orthophytum BROMELIACEAE U. Eggli and E. J. Gouda Orthophytum Beer (Flora 37: 347, 1854). Type: Prantleia glabra Mez [typification according to L. B. Smith & Downs, Fl. Neotrop. 14(3): 1696, 1979]. — Bromelioideae — Lit: Smith & Downs (1979: 1696-1710, Fl. Neotropica); Leme (2008: key to the mello-barretoi-complex); Louzada & al. (2010: cytology); Louzada & Wanderley (2010: partial monograph of the vagans-clade); Louzada (2012: unpublished monograph, with key); Louzada & al. (2014: molecular phylog- eny); Leme & al. (2017: classification). Distr: E Brazil; Atlantic Forest, Cerrado and Caatinga veg- etations, usually saxicolous. Etym: Gr. ‘orthos’, erect, straight; and Gr. ‘phyton’, plant; for the erect stems with well-spaced leaves of the type species. Incl. Prantleia Mez (1891). Type: Prantleia glabra Mez. Incl. Cryptanthopsis Ule (1908). Type: Crypt- anthopsis saxicola Ule. Perennial terrestrial or saxicolous rosette plants; Ros sessile or short- to long-caulescent, sometimes elongating-desintegrating when flowering, monocarpic but offsetting, sometimes with short stolons; L few to many, laxly to densely rosulate or spirally arranged on elongate stems, sheath inconspicuous or Æ indistinctly separated from the lamina, L lamina linear to narrowly triangular, or ovate-triangular, coriaceous to succulent, flat or canaliculate, glabrous to densely lepidote, mar- gins serrate and with antrorse to retrorse spines, apex acuminate, Æ pungent; Inf terminal, elon- gate and rosette desintegrating with inflorescence growth, and then with spikes, spikes of spikes, or glomerules in the axils of the primary bracts, or congested and sessile in the centre of the caulescent rosette; peduncular Bra resembling the leaves but progressively diminishing in size; floral Bra subcoriaceous to coriaceous, narrowly triangular to ovate-triangular, sometimes strongly carinate, shorter to longer than the sepals, green to green-yellowish or red to dark wine-red, margins serrate, apex acuminate and/or pungent; Fl sessile to shortly pedicellate, hermaphrodite; Sep nar- rowly triangular to ovate-triangular, free or rarely forming a short tube, acuminate and/or pungent; Pet often spatulate, free or forming an epigynous tube to 2 mm long, white to green, greenish-yel- low or lilac-rose, upper spreading or erect, obtuse to obtuse-cucullate or acute, basal append- ages echinatiform, cupuliform, scutelliform or sacciform (absent in Subgen. Orthocryptanthus); St included; Fil of the inner whorl adnate to the petals; Ov inferior, Æ trigonous, glabrous to densely lanate-lepidote; Sty long and slender; Sti lobes simple, erect, narrow; Fr subglobose to U. Eggli (*) Sukkulenten-Sammlung Zürich, Grün Stadt Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland e-mail: Urs.Eggli@zuerich.ch E. J. Gouda Curator University Botanic Gardens, Utrecht, Netherlands e-mail: e.j.gouda@uu.nl © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019 U. Eggli, R. Nyffeler (eds.), Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Monocotyledons, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-56324-3_93-1 1