10 years ago I was the Conductor of Questions and Answers in the Journal of the Bromeliad Society Inc. and most times I had to think up my own questions but there was at least one 'real' one! This was "What do you know about Nidularium leprosa?" Using Editorial licence this question and answer appeared in JBS 1991 p224 as follows.
"Question. How do you distinguish among Nidularium rutilans, N. regelioides, and N. Leprosa?
Answer. Nidularium rutilans and N. regelioides are recognised species but N. Leprosa was a bit harder to find. The only reference available was Brian Smith's Manuscript of Bromeliad Hybrids and Cultivars where N. Leprosa is listed as a hybrid of N. regelioides and N. rosulatum. I must point out that Brian gleaned his information from official lists AND nursery catalogues. It is a sad reflection on the aims of our Society when some hybrids occur only in Nursery Catalogues.
I wonder if the plant that caused the question was a clone of the original hybrid or an F2 seedling? If a seedling it would not be N. Leprosa but a plant with affinities to either parent. Being a hybrid, identification would be very difficult.
Let us look at the two species. Nidularium rutilans was named in 1885 and N. regelioides in 1898. At one time, N. rutilans was reduced to synonymy under N. regelioides. Now we consider them separate but closely related. The main difference seems to be that the floral bracts are entire (smooth) in N. rutilans but serrate (toothed) in N. regelioides."
Since that time N regelioides has been relegated to being a synonym of N. rutilans (see Leme 2000) because the serrations on the floral bracts are very minor and this difference did not warrant a separate species. This does not mean that horticulturally they are now treated as a single entity because some forms are more outstanding than others. Are these forms worthy of identification in the Bromeliad Cultivar registry under ICNCP rules?
Let us now look at Nidularium 'Leprosa' Is it a hybrid of N. regelioides and N. rosulatum? If so why is it so spotted? Is it just an extra spotted form of N. regelioides (Now N. rutilans)? What do we know about the alleged hybrid? Nothing much! But we do know that the Manuscript of Bromeliad Hybrids and Cultivars by Brian Smith 1984 was compiled from Nurserymen's lists around the USA in this period. From what I can discover, the name of the Nursery was not given which in hindsight is a pity. However, we must remember the furore caused by Grande, a publication under the auspices of the Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies, in 1978 in daring to suggest that hybridists practices could be improved. Did N. 'Leprosa' originate in California or Florida? I tend to believe Florida because in Smith's Manuscript (1984) mention is made of other unregistered hybrids originating in Florida using similar Nidularium species.
Was the N. rosulatum used correctly identified? Certainly the N. rosulatum pictured in Baensch (1994), p132 with its white flowers (instead of blue) is incorrectly identified and I would suggest that many of Baensch's plants would have come from Florida. This species is rare and as Leme (2000) points out, only one clone exists in cultivation. The chance of a correctly named N. rosulatum being the pollen parent is not high.
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N. 'Leprosa' has red flowers which links closely to the Red flowered Complex of Leme and thus has closer ties to N. rutilans. It is of sufficient horticultural note to retain this name even though its hybrid status is in doubt. Thanks to the work of Gerry Stansfield in NZ we are now able to define N. 'Leprosa'. I will not bore you with the detail Gerry has gone into but on comparing his findings with the descriptions of both N. rosulatum and N. rutilans in Leme (2000) I can find no hint of the involvement of N. rosulatum. When Gerry showed that N. 'Leprosa' had tripinnate flowers which links with N. rutilans rather than the bipinnate N. rosulatum I was convinced this plant is not a hybrid but a very good cultivar of a species. One other interesting fact is that the fascicles (the side bunches of flowers that appear inside the colourful primary bracts of Nidularium) have on the average 7 - 9 flowers whereas they are quoted as 4 - 6 for N. rutilans.
The name 'Leprosa' will live on in the Bromeliad Cultivar Registry where I will be making suitable amendments including photographs to help in identification. Illegitimate names such as 'Spotty' or N. regelioides var. rosulatum are not acceptable."
Reference
Leme, E.M.C., 2000. Nidularium - Bromeliads of the Atlantic Forest, GMT Editores, Ltda., Rio de Janeiro
