Species Overview

Native to: Central America

Introduced via horticulture, it has several recorded traditional uses. The fruits are edible and have been used medicinally and the leaves have been used as fibers for textiles. It has also been planted to stabilize shorelines and create living fences and barriers. It is recorded outside of cultivation as early as the 1970s in Florida.

Species Characteristics

Family: Bromeliaceae

Habit: Herbaceous shrub that forms colonies.

Leaves: Form a rosette. Narrow with hooked spines and up to 6.5 feet long, mostly green but becoming red at the top.

Flowers: Numerous floccose pedicellate flowers with red petals on an erect stalk.

Fruit/Seeds: Yellow ovoid capsules, 3-4 cm long containing cream pulp and seeds.

Distribution in Florida: Central Florida

Impacts

Piguin can be spread via seed by animals and it forms colonies via stolons. While not listed as invasive in Florida, it has been noted to have escaped cultivation and form dense stands in some areas. In Cuba it has been documented invading forest and savannahs where it displaces native plants and provides habitat for invasive mammals.

Do not plant.

Uproot plants taking care not to be injured by the spines.

None known.

Research needed.