Cochliostema odoratissimum

Common Name: Cochliostema

Family: Commelinaceae

Country of Origin: C. & W. South America

Description: Rosette, typically unbranched herbs with somewhat succulent, strap-shaped leaves. In the wild, plants grow as tank-epiphytes; however, terrestrial plants are found on or around tree falls suggesting that these ground-dwelling plants had been growing epiphytically. Leaves reach to 1 m in length, and plants sometimes reaching 2 m in height.

Flowers are borne in a large thyrse and are generally the largest (ca. 2.5 cm diam.), among the most fragrant, and arguably the most complex in the spiderwort family. They consist of 3 sepals, 3 blue to blue-violet petals fringed with moniliform trichomes, 3 stamens fused by their filaments in the upper half of the flower, and 3 carpels fused into a single trilocular pistil. The fused staminal structure has 3 spirally coiled anthers enveloped and concealed by petaloid extensions of the filaments of the two lateral stamens contributing to the 3-staminate structure. These structures, termed "cuculli", are narrowed into two distal hose-like extensions.¹

USDA Zone: 11-12

Accession #: 198700219

Accession Date: 1987-01-15 00:00:00

Bloom Status: 🪴 Not Flowering

Location: 3305

Quantity: 2

Source: UMass

Division: Magnoliophyta

Class: Liliopsida

Subclass: commelinids

Order: Commelinales

Family: Commelinaceae

SubFamily: Commelinoideae

Tribe: Tradescantieae

SubTribe: Dichorisandrinae