In 1979 in Flora Neotropica Lyman Smith decided it was too difficult to separate all the forms so "citrinum" and "purpureum" all became plain Nidularium billbergioides. However, both these names persist to this day at horticultural level especially "citrinum". The use of this name contravenes the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants and we should be looking at non-Latinised names to solve the problem of cultivars in this group. Therefore the Bromeliad Cultivar Registry reference on page 339 is invalid.
In 1997 we started to tackle this problem in Australia and information appeared in Bromeletter #5 1997. We decided to use the name of a well known fruit as a basis of our selections. Differences can be found in the colour of the primary bract and colour of leaf and if you use a colour chart such as is in Isley's book "Tillandsias" or Graf's "Exotica" you can pick consistent colour differences. We have found 9 different "Fruit" so far and these are as follows;
- APRICOT Primary bract deep yellow orange #12 Leaf green
- BLOOD ORANGE Primary bract reddish orange #24 Leaf green
- CITRON (was citrinum) Primary bract yellow #3 Leaf green
- GUAVA Primary bract rose #38 Leaf green
- LEMON Primary bract light yellow #2 Leaf green
- MULBERRY Primary bract dark orange/mulberry #19 Leaf reddish both sides #28
- PERSIMMON Primary bract orange #18 Leaf green
- TAMARILLO Primary bract orange flushed mulberry #12 Leaf rusty both sides #21
- TUTTI FRUTTI Primary bract orange flushed mulberry #12 Leaf green
If you are worried about variegated plants then call your plant , for example, Variegated 'Apricot' or 'Apricot' variegated. "
