Replies on: Casus Pro Diagnosi - Bromeliad Identification Page

21. Tillandsia spec.#3 (Send your reply, using the form)

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• Walter Till: Despite the exserted stamens and style, I am sure that your latest unknown Tillandsia is T. kammii Rauh. Sometimes plants of subgenus Tillandsia do not exsert the genitalia due to developmental disturbance. Rauh obviously had such a plant when he described the new species.
• Eric Gouda (14-10-99): It certainly resembles Tillandsia kammii, but I never seen this species with a spike exerted this way. T.kammii (at least what I thought) is a small species resembling Tillandsia plagiotropica and all the specimen I've seen flowering looks like the one pictured at JBS 1994 page 263 (the picture in Rauh's book doesn't show very much, but the ones in his publication are more clear). Leaves 7-5 cm long and 1 cm wide at base (Rauh Trop. Subtrop. Pflanzenwelt 21:45-8). I think he means 7-15 cm long... The stamens are often included, but the pistil may come out. Only the top of the spike can be seen between the leaves.
  The pale purple-blue flowering Tillandsia kammii (Rauh 1977) looks a little bit different (more robust) than the white flowering Tillandsia plagiotropica (Rohweder 1953), but I'm not sure what the real differences are. Rauh doesn't say anything about this species, which certainly is much related.
  Harry Luther says (J. Bromeliad Soc. 44:197, 212. 1994.): T.plagiotropica is closely related to the red-bracted, blue-flowered T.kammii Rauh from Honduras. Besides the very different inflorescence coloration, it may be distinguished from the Honduran species by broader, usually shorter leaves that are stiffer and brittle and more white in color.
  I agree about shorter and stiffer, but not about broader. Rohweder says leaves 10(-15) cm long; sheaths 15 mm wide. So I suppose the leaf-blades are not more than 1 cm wide at the base. I think more study is needed here.
  On the other hand the picture of Charles at http://www.fix.net/~cdills/what_is_it/texxt105.html looks more like T. hondurensis to me, which is a much larger species like T.harrisii, but with softer leaves, and the spike with shorter scape.

Send your reply, using the form, thanks E.J.Gouda