AN AMATEUR’S GUIDE TO THE GREYISH LEAVED TILLANDSIOIDEAE

Compiled by Derek Butcher

Index

All plants listed are Tillandsia except those marked 'R' for Racinaea or 'V' for Vriesea
Diaphoranthema Tillandsias are marked with a 'D'

NOTES:

1) T.sphaerocephala in Smith/Downs includes schreiteri with flowers yellowish white
Rauh says(1) schreiteri has white flowers and comes from Tucuman
(2) sphaerocephala has blue/ lavender flowers and comes from Bolivia and Southern Peru.
See also Die Bromelie 2/ 1998

2) T.meridionalis is treated as a synonym of  T. recurvifolia.
T. meridionalis v. subsecundifolia is not treated as a synonym of  T. leonamiana but as T. recurvifolia v. subsecundifolia.
T. leonamiana is treated as originally described by Pereira. Despite a release by Isley, the true plant does not appear to be in cultivation.
A. Seidel, the original collector, has not been been able to find the type specimen again. (Refer Renate Ehlers)

3) T. rosea is included if only to cover the white-flowered or albino form of  T. stricta. (See BSI Journal v.32, p.239)

4) T. pedicellata is treated separately from T. bryoides because of Till's work. (See Die Bromelie nr 3/89)

5) T. xiphioides v. tafiensis is a blue flowered variety and not the white flowered specimen featured in Isley's book TILLANDSIA

6) V. lubbersii is included but V. corcovadensis is not, even though supposedly available through the trade. A true V. corcovadensis is very rare and would have leaves only 10mm wide just above the sheath. It is supposed to be 'almost' polystichous but no doubt there are many forms in between these two recognised species.

7) T. graebneri is included even though most plants in circulation under this name are within the perimeter spectrum of T. variabilis.

8) R. undulifolia is used instead of R. crispa where R. crispa v. tustii is the 'true R. crispa' (Refer Harry Luther)

9) T. globosa is also included in red-rose section despite having an "official" petal colour of blue (see S & D)

10) V. tillandsioides has pale blue flowers not green as in S & D description. See Rauh's book 'Bromeliads --' and Smith's comparison with V. harmsiana

11) V. chontalensis and V. crenulipetala seem very close. When Rauh says flowers green and white when dry for V.crenulipetala the only major difference seems to be the larger scape of  V. crenulipetala. I am treating V. chontalensis as green petals and V. crenulipetala as white

12) T. mooreana and T. kalmbacheri continue to be confused as to whether green or purple petals apply. At the moment we show T. mooreana in Section A and T. kalmbacheri in section E

13) T. paraensis. Note that T. juruana is normally treated as a synonym of T. paraensis but L. Hromradnik maintains they are separate. Photo shows T. paraensis at top and T. juruana at bottom. For further information see Die Bromelie 1/1998