Billbergia leptopoda/lietzei by Derek Butcher 2004
In January 2004 Mike Andreas added a photograph to the photo index of a Billbergia leptopoda with totally green flowers. This rekindled my interest in the supposed differences between Billbergia lietzei Morren 1881 and Billbergia leptopoda L B Smith
1945. What were the differences that caused Lyman Smith to describe this collection by Mulford Foster? These species are side by side in Flora Neotropica and according to the key the main differences are leaves spotted for B. leptopoda. The sepals for B. leptopoda are narrowly elliptic, rounded and minutely apiculate compared to oblong, broadly acute and short apiculate for B. lietzei. When looking at petal colour this is quoted as being green except for dark blue apex for B. leptopoda compared to blue toward apex and the remainder greenish-yellow or sometimes wholly green.
How could a totally green petalled plant be linked to B. leptopoda when it linked closer to B. lietzei?
I decided to investigate further and find out what Morren did actually write in 1881 on B. lietzii. Thanks to Joseph Beaujean of Liege, Belgium I was able to acquire a copy of Morren’s original work which I duly translated to English. This follows:
From Belg. Hortic. 31: 97-8, Pls. 5-7. 1881
DESCRIPTION OF BILLBERGIA LIETZEI, SP. NOV.
by M. Edouard MORREN
Plates V – VII
This new species of Billbergia has been sent us from Brazil, in 1878, by M A Lietze, a distinguished and established horticulturist in Rio de Janeiro, to which we make ourselves a duty to dedicate it, to recognize the goodwill and the activity that he shows in favor of the horticultural botany. It grew well in our own greenhouses and flowers every year several times, in May to September. The flowers are very pretty and graceful especially in the bracts that comes with them, but they are too ephemeral.
Billbergia Lietzei belongs to the section that has an inflorescence with a lax spike and each flower provided with a well developed bract. It has close affinities with Billbergia iridifolia (see Belgique horticole, 1874, p. 193, pl. VIII - IX), from which it differs by its thicker leaves, more spiny, less gray underneath, its erect spike and not pendant, by the coccineal colour of the bracts, that is pink in the B. iridifolia, and finally by the coloration of the flowers.
Description;
Clustering; leaf rosettes a little apart (1 to 4cm),
Leaves few (5-10), very unequal, the first short (10cm or less), the following longer (to 55cm), erect, bent more or less and arched, strap-like, narrow ( 2-3cm), tough, channeled, spiny on the sides, acuminate at the tip, nearly smooth has the superior face, covered with gray scales mainly on the lower face, often creased with a large furrow along the median line.
Inflorescence thin, erect, shorter than the leaves,
Scape when stretched out (15-20cm), thin (5mm), very smooth, rose, internode spaces small(3cm), each with a membranous scape bract, lanceolate, narrow, long (7cm), coccineal, soon discolored.
Spike lax, 6-13 flowers each inserted in the axil of a bract. Rachis has short internodes (1cm on average) in a zig-zag, very smooth.
Bracts membranous, lanceolate, narrow (1cm), erect, rose, the first equaling the flowers (6cm), the following successively shorter.
Flower subsessile, erect, arched a little, long (6cm), entirely smooth.
Sepals tongue shaped lanceolate, short (15mm), a little dull, coloured rose, of violet and of green.
Petals twice as long, when stretched out , with two small comb-like scales at the base., spreading and revolute at the top, a beautiful clear green passing usually to a bluish violet towards the top.
Stamens a little shorter, filaments green, anthers dorsifixed, short.
Stigma more elevated, has 3 wide and wavy branches.
Ovary ribbed, rose.
We recognized two very distinct varieties among the few stems of Billbergia Lietzei that bloomed under our care. The form that we consider as typical has green petals but for the top being blue, while a variety exists, that one can name chlorantha, whose petals are green entirely.
We have, besides, noted another anomaly; some flowers have three normal petals, but others have petaloid appendages a little shorter and becoming clear from the upper part. In one of these flowers, one of six stamens, the one that is opposed to the superior petal, has its petaloid filament split, prolonged to beyond the anther and bipartite to the tip. This petaloid stamen has at its base the two small comb-like scales usually inserted on the petals. In another flower, three stamens are intact, three others have the petaloid filament. It is the first time, to our knowledge, that a Bromeliaceae shows a tendency toward the duplication of the flower.
The culture of the Billbergia Lietzei is the same for the other species, that is to say, very easy in a good hot, humid and appropriately illuminated greenhouse.
This has brought new facts to light, one of which is that the totally green petalled form should have been called B. lietzei var. chlorantha. Baker in ‘Handbook of Bromeliaceae’ 1889 pp76-7 describes B. lietzei and makes a comment that this species should be treated as a variety of B. iridifolia. Smith treats one difference between B. lietzei and B. iridifolia as being sessile for B. iridifolia but pedicels for B. lietzei, a fact not mentioned by either Morren or Baker! But Baker does refer to var. chlorantha as a form with petals entirely green. In 1879 before Morren described B. lietzei var chlorantha he treated this taxon as a species in its own right. Thus, the voucher held at the Universite de Liege shows B. chlorantha but then a determination by Carl Mez, March 1898 that this was B. lietzei. So in 1934 when Mez published his ‘Bromeliaceae’ B. leitzei was shown as having both totally green petals OR blue tipped. This interpretation remained in Smith & Downs 1979.
If we refer to B. iridifolia (Nees & Martius) Lindley we will see it has blue tipped petals but Smith saw the need to name var concolor in 1955 for the form that that has totally pale yellow petals. In the same year Smith also created B. amoena var. viridis for the totally green petalled form of B. amoena. It would therefore seem that petal colour differences in Billbergia were treated by Smith at varietal level.
Both B. leptopoda and B. lietzei are illustrated as having leaves in an open vase and yet in cultivation these can both be a tight tubular vase. This is similar to Billbergia vittata when we include the synonymous B. domingos-martinsis Gross. This was placed under synonymy in DeRebus I in 1994 without reason given but has not been challenged since that time. We know that the taxon B. domingos-martinsis has a tight tubular vase and the leaves can be very spotted. This name lives on as the cultivar B.’Domingos Martins’.
There does appear to be some discrepancy in the length of the pedicels with Lyman Smith quoting 5-20mm long for B. leptopoda and 3-5mm for B. lietzei. On the other hand Morren quotes sessile in the Latin diagnosis and sub-sessile in the French. This indicates that pedicel length is very variable. All the paintings done at that time and held in Liege show pedicels.
It is interesting that only the paintings of the totally-green-petalled forms are held in Liege and I can only assume that the painting of the blue-tipped-petalled B. lietzei var lietzei is held at Kew. It is a pity that Liege could not have obtained the full collection of Morren’s work but part of the collection was sold to Kew.
If we follow the same reasoning the difference between B. leptopoda and B. lietzei is reduced to sepal shape. Photographs of both plants seem to show a variation in the sharpness of the sepal tip and some photos even show a difference in shape and length on the same flower. Therefore, I believe that B. leptopoda should be treated as a synonym of B. lietzei but leave the decision to the trained taxonomist. It is possible that no Billbergia leptopoda in the strict sense, has survived in cultivation and that all plants under cultivation with this name have been misidentified.
I consider that the totally green petalled plant currently identified as Billbergia leptopoda fits better Billbergia lietzei var. chlorantha Morren and I intend to resurrect this variety to identify photos submitted to fcbs.org.
If you have any photographs of either species showing the shape of the sepals please send them to us for comparison purposes.
Billbergia lietzei var. chlorantha by Butcher
B x2 by Andreas
B herb from Joseph Beaujohn
B. etiq. Herb “
B. lietzei var viridis by Stroobant “
B. lietzei showing ‘double’ flower “
July 2010.
Something omitted in 2004. We have Billbergia lietzii var chlorantha growing in Adelaide. Investigation of this totally green petalled form reminded me of a plant that had been happily growing in my garden since the 1980’s that we had called B. lietzii ‘Percy’. We had got it from Percy Dandridge who worked at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens! We had called it ‘Percy’ because we knew if flowered differently to our ‘normal’ B. lietzii. Now we had two reasons to continue to grow the plant, one nostalgia and the other ‘scientific’!
