I knew that Michael Kiehl of Michael's Bromeliads of Florida had a large number of Elmore's hybrids and yes, he knew the difference between the two 'Voodoo's. I just had to get a photograph at flowering stage because the descriptions in the Bromeliad Cultivar Registry(BCR) confused me. Neither description suggested 'black magic' so when Herb Plever did one of his southerly expeditions to escape the cold of a February in New York and took photographs of both plants I was greatly pleased. Plant gossip in Florida suggested that Wurthmann's plant had been renamed 'Midnight' without advising the then Registrar. So it appears this plant is going around under two names! On this occasion I have listened to gossip and am showing a reference in the BCR that plants that were known as 'Voodoo' but have very dark leaves are now called 'Midnight' (Wurthmann).
This brings me to a different problem where 2 cultivars share the same name but 'Midnight' (Goode) is different to 'Midnight' (Wurthmann) as the photos show.
This doubling up of names should not occur NOW because hybridists have access to an up-to-date BCR. Once a name has been allocated and the plant distributed it is very difficult to change the name to a unique one at a later date.
Neoregelia 'Voodoo' (Elmore) remains and is a plant that looks superficially like a spotted Neoregelia carolinae.
While looking for other 'black' neoregelias there are 'Mandela' and 'Nelson' by Grace Goode but the best, so far, seems to be 'Darkest Hour'."
hp.jpg', 'Neoregelia \'Midnight\'', '640', '496'))
hp.jpg', 'Neoregelia \'Voodoo\'', '620', '481'))
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