Margaret Butcher
In October 1988 the seed list offered Hohenbergia ramageana. It was repeated in November but in December it had Hohenbergia ramageana (pennae). The seed was successfully raised by Keith Bradtberg and flowered but we were uncertain of the name because we did not have a description for H. pennae. Only recently were we able to obtain a copy of the description in Bradea by Pereira in 1983 to help us in our quest and struck a few problems. The woolly rhachis, the strongly asymmetric sepals, and leaf spines about 3mm long lead us to the original name of H. ramageana but the bottle shaped plant suggests H. pennae. However, we have noted that you can change a bottle-shaped Aechmea bromeliifolia to a more open rosette simply by changing your cultural conditions. So we lean towards H. ramageana as being correct.
Why was the name "pennae" suggested in December 1988? An intriguing puzzle.
Coincidentally, Len Colgan imported a plant called Aechmea pennae from Seidel in Brazil in October 1988 to Adelaide (see photos below). This has just flowered 10
years later and yet seed grown plants of the same vintage flowered 4 years
earlier! Clearly the seed grown plants are very similar to the imported
plant. Could Seidel have sent seed to the BSI Seed Fund at the same time as
offering plants? We would be grateful to anyone who has any information.
This is perhaps yet another example of why to grow plants from seed because
they do acclimatise better.
Notes added June 2007
Elton Leme published his book 'Fragmentos de Mata Atlantica do Nordeste' towards the end of 2006 . After busily translating what Elton had to say about treating H. ramageana and H. ridleyi as separate species we now have a better understanding of both these species! Accordingly, I am changing my mind - a woman's prerogative - and say we really have H. pennae here. Please change your labels - again!
