This remarkable new species unfortunately is known to the authors only from 19 herbarium plants with inflorescences mainly in post flowering state. Only the holotype and one isotype G , each exhibit one anthetic flower. Although its novelty is out of discussion, characters of fresh pollen and detailed stigma morphology are lacking as well as actual petal color and eventual fIower odor.
Phytogeographically it seems to link the Andean relatives from Tillandsia subgenus Anoplophytum with the east Paraguayan T. esseriana. It probably represents an isolated remnant population from pleistocene periods of cooler and drier climates.
Tillandsia ramellae by Walter Till & Susanne Till in J Brom Soc 47(1):30. 1997
Last year we described Tillandsia ramellae W Till & S. Till (TILL & TILL, 1995) as a novelty based on herbarium material which kindly had been brought to our attention by its collector, Lorenzo Ramella from the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques in Geneve, Switzerland. The material was mainly fruiting and some floral details were lacking in the diagnosis.
Mr. Ramella also sent us a living specimen which flowered in the Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna in December 1995 (figs. 13, 14). This fresh flower material enables us to add a few characteristics to the original description:
Flowers ca. 3 mm, stoutly pedicellate, 50-54 mm long, not at all fragrant.
Floral bracts pale green to flesh-colored.
Sepals adaxially 2.5 mm connate, pale green, to 29 mm long.
Petals to 52 mm long.
Filaments subbasifixed, slightly plicated 1 cm above their bases, narrowed towards their apices, white with a touch of violet in the upper half. Anthers greenish-yellow, pollen pale yellow.
Gynoecium 44 mm long, ovary obovoidal, 4.5 x 2.2 mm, pale green, style 38 mm long, white, stigma white, the lobes erect, spreading, papillose.
Ovules stout, short caudate.
Tillandsia ramellae usually grows on steep rocks (escarpments) only occasionally is it found as an epiphyte on trees. It is recognized by its yellowish green foliage which is densely covered by appressed trichomes giving the plant a dull, pale gray appearance (fig 13). The inflorescence is usually simple and distichously flowered, rarely an additional spike is produced. Floral bracts are dull flesh-colored in the field but pale green in cultivation, petals are violet blue (fig. 14). The sepals, densely lepidote except for their margins, are very distinctive.
In the protologue this new Tillandsia has been compared with T. esseriana Rauh & L.B. Smith. However, according to the floral details and the stigma morphology it is related to the alliance of T. lorentziana Griseb. It is hitherto known only from one isolated mountain in northwestern Paraguay at the Bolivian border. It seems to be a locally endemic species and should be legally protected from exploitation. —SeeTill & Till 1995
