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This species has a genus all of its own because it has leaf-like appendages
to the anther. These can be seen in black on the line drawings of this
plant in the area marked 'H'.
male
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female
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The other peculiar thing about this species is that you can have boy plants
and girl plants!. You will see the subtle differences in the line drawings
aptly labelled male and female! You will notice that the male plant has a
vestigial female part (pistil). To assist you in identifying the various
parts of the drawings F = floral bract, G = pistil, H = anther, O = ovary,
P = petal, PB = primary bract, S = sepal. Please don't worry about the
non-match of some of the letters. I didn't think you wanted the explanation
in German!
I am not sure if the female is self-fertile which tends make the poor male
somewhat redundant but raises the problem of inbreeding. Our current
investigation suggests that we have only females in Australia which is a
bit of a pity. What is the situation in the USA? Michael Andreas, your Web
Master, has probably got a male - something he was not aware of! Karen has
now written a blue label!
Androlepis skinneri
female
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Androlepis skinneri
female
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So we have a plea to all growers of Androlepis skinneri. When your plant next flowers would you please check the flower. The plant will not mind if you mangle one or two but please decide its sexuality. Make a note on your label and let us know because it would be good to know who is growing what. If you want to read more on this subject there is an excellent article (in German!) by Werner Rauh in Bromelienstudien 14 1983 where I obtained most of my information. At that time he believed there were three varieties of the species, namely skinneri, mexicana, and peruviana. The current view is this splitting was unnecessary.
There is only one Androlepis skinneri!
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