Neoglaziovia Mez (in Martius, Fl. Bras. 3(3): 426, 1894). Type: Bromelia variegata Arruda. — Bromelioideae — Lit: Smith & Downs (1979: 2036–2038, Fl. Neotropica). Distr: NE Brazil. Etym: Gr. ‘neos’, new (to avoid a homonym); and for Auguste F. M. Glaziou (1828–1906), French botanical traveller collecting 1861–1895 in Brazil.

Perennial terrestrial Ros plants, stemless, with underground rhizomes, forming dense to open colonies; L 3–10 per rosette, with indistinct entire sheath, lamina very long and narrow, stiff and succulent, margins with laxly arranged short Sp 2–4 (−6) mm; Inf terminal, shorter than the leaves, unbranched, peduncular Bra longer than the internodes, leaf-like, fertile part few- to many-flowered, lax or dense; Fl shortly pedicellate or sessile, glabrous; Sep free, ± symmetrical, red; Pet free, symmetrical, bright purple, with 2 scales at the base; St included; Fil free; Ov completely inferior; Fr fleshy berries.

Neoglaziovia is easily recognized by the rosettes with few ascending to erect, narrowly linear and succulent leaves. Its systematic position within Bromelioideae is not well-resolved. Schulte & al. (2009) found it as basal sister of the “core bromelioids”, but with limited support. Evans & al. (2015) did not even find the 2 studied species (N. variegata, N. burle-marxii) to form a monophyletic clade, and both appear as separate entities as part of an extensive polytomy in their Eu-Bromelioid clade.

Leal & al. (2006) and Lemos Pereira & Maciel Quirino (2008) report hummingbird pollination (mainly by Chlorostilbon aureoventris) for N. variegata. — An intergeneric hybrid with Orthophytum has been formally named ×Orthoglaziovia.

N. burle-marxii Leme (J. Bromeliad Soc. 40(3): 101–103, ills., 1990). Type: Brazil, Bahia (Burle-Marx s.n. [HB, RB]). — Distr: Brazil (Bahia); Caatinga vegetation, sandy soil.

L to 3 m, lamina linear, narrowing gradually to the tip, 2.5 cm wide at the base, very rigid and thick, strongly canaliculate, upper face inconspicuously white-lepidote, lower face uniformly densely white-lepidote in longitudinal rows; Inf to 70 cm, erect, peduncular Bra not completely covering the peduncle, lower ones leaf-like, upper ones narrowly lanceolate, reddish, densely white-lepidote on both faces; fertile part of the Inf dense, 30- to 40-flowered, with an apical tuft of small bracts; Fl sessile, spreading-ascending; Sep suborbicular; Pet long obovate, 13–18 mm.

N. concolor C. H. Wright (Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 136: t. 8348 + text, 1910). Type: K, GH [photo]. — Distr: NE Brazil (Bahia); Caatinga vegetation, sandy soils.

L to 0.6 m but probably becoming longer, lamina to 2.5 cm wide, long-acuminate, both faces uniformly appressedly white-lepidote; Inf erect, peduncular Bra not described; lower floral Bra linear, longer than the flowers, upper ones to 4 mm, triangular; Ped 5–7 mm; Fl spreading; Sep broadly ovate, rounded; Pet broadly round, to 20 mm.

N. variegata (Arruda) Mez (in Martius, Fl. Bras. 3(3): 427, t. 80, fig. 1, 1894). Type: not typified. — Distr: NE Brazil (Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, Bahia, Minas Gerais); Caatinga vegetation on stony to sandy ground. I: Leme & Marigo (1993: 156–157). – Fig. 1.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Neoglaziovia variegata. (Copyright: U. Eggli)

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≡ Bromelia variegata Arruda (1810) ≡ Billbergia variegata (Arruda) Schultes fil. (1830) ≡ Agallostachys variegata (Arruda) Beer (1856); incl. Bromelia linifera hort. ex Beer (1856) (nom. inval., Art. 34.1c); incl. Dyckia glaziovii Baker (1889).

L to 1.5 m, lamina 1.5–2 cm wide, acuminate-pungent, both faces laxly lepidote, upper face green to brown-green, smooth, lower face with broad white bands, margins somewhat revolute; Inf erect to ± inclined, densely white-floccose; peduncular Bra narrow, entire or slightly serrulate; fertile part of the Inf lax, 10- to 60-flowered; lower floral Bra ± as long as the flowers, linear, upper to 3 mm, triangular; Ped to 4 mm; Fl somewhat spreading; Sep obtuse to minutely mucronate, 6–7 mm; Pet obtuse, to 13 mm. — Cytology: 2n = 100 (tetraploid) (Gitaí & al. 2014).

The species is has been extensively used as a source for fibre for making textiles especially in rural areas (Xavier 1942), and fibres are classified as having low to medium strength in comparison with other lignocellulosic fibres (Almeida & al. 2008). The leaves are also harvested to feed to animals, and overharvesting has caused the disappearance of the species from some areas in Bahia (Silveira & al. 2011).