Brocchinia

Brocchinia is a genus of the botanical family Bromeliaceae, and is the sole genus of the subfamily Brocchinioideae, containing 20 species. The genus is named after Giovanni Battista Brocchi, Italian naturalist (1772–1826). Brocchinia species are native primarily to the ancient Guayana Shield in southern Venezuela and Guyana, with some species extending into Colombia and northern Brazil. Its species are generally restricted to areas of sand and sandstone of the Roraima Formation; a few occur on granite. Based on chloroplast DNA sequence variation, Brocchinia appears to be sister to all other bromeliads. Calibration of the molecular family tree of bromeliads against the known ages of various fossil monocots suggests that Brocchinia lineage diverged from other bromeliads nearly 20 million years ago, and that some of the living species of Brocchinia began diverging from each other soon thereafter. The next lineage to diverge from other bromeliads included Lindmania and Connellia, which ar......read more on Wikipedia.