Cochliostema odoratissimum Lem.

Common Name: Cochliostema
Family: Commelinaceae R. Br.

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

Accession # 198700219
Source: UMass
Accession Date: 01-15-1987
Bench: 3305 - NEOB: Bromeliad North Step
- Currently: active - healthy
- Qty: 2 confirmed on 04-14-2025

This accession has been observed in bloom on:

EEB Greenhouse Holdings native to: Costa Rica / Nicaragua / Panama / Bolivia / Colombia / Ecuador

Cochliostema at Wikipedia. Last accessed on Tuesday, August 14, 2018.
The Plant List (2013). Version 1.1. Last accessed on Wednesday, January 18, 2017.
WCSP (2013). World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
The Strangest Spiderworts at In Defense of Plants. Last accessed on Tuesday, August 14, 2018.

data regenerated on Mon, 14 Apr 2025 08:15:11 -0400 [bcm v4.0]

Plant Biodiversity Conservatory and Research Core