By Ehlers
When we collected the plant on our trip in 1989, I thought it was T. nolleriana. This name was also used after 1989 on the tag of two other collctions because I always like to collect 2 different clones of the plant from the same location.
When this Tillandsia started to flower in the summer 2001, I was not especially curious, because T. nolleriana from other locations had already flowered frequently for us. But suddenly I saw that side-spikes were being formed. I had to wait August 2001 until February 2002 before the inflorescence completely developed and I could see the flowers. The plant looks like a large T. nolleriana, but with no stolons.
First, I was still undecided, whether it was a hybrid of T. nolleriana x T.calothyrsus. Both these species were not in the immediate vicinity but were further afield. Comparisons of the individual characters made me decide that this was not very likely.Furthermore, I had collected at least 2 different clones that showed the same characteristics.
From my trip-diary:
Saturday 15. 4. 1989
We drive over to Salina Cruz at the coast to Huatulco, a small place with a small restaurant and a beautiful bay and where we had bathed years before during our Huachinango trip and got marvelously sizzled.
Everywhere on the streets were signs - Protect the turtles. We drive purely to Huatulco, it has changed very much, already many more buildings, it now has a golf course, brightly-green lawn-areas and trees. It has become a Tourist attraction! Our old restaurant had been replaced by a much more modern one with fish soup, huacinangos and lemon-pie for a princely dinner. On an evening-walk, we bump into our Hamburg boys - Mexico seems to be a small country - and a tourist from Nürtingen wants to know, whether the V F of B has descended, and whether the people have worries on vacation!
Saturday 15. 4.
Drove from Bahia de Huatulco over Pochutla to Puerto Escondito. We stop at a small bay, it is 11.00 and we eat oysters, we order crawfish for lunch and go swimming until it is cooked -what luxury!
We proceed to the meal. On the route, a truck has fallen down the embankment we must wait until a crane comes. It is 55 °S and my sunburn hurts as we wait in the car. Later, we must fry almost 2 hours in the sun again: military-control, but friendly. We look for hotel in Puerto Escondito, either there are hotels with air-conditioning far from the beach, or without near the sea. We decide in favor of being near the sea. A coconut bigger than a soccer ball tastes magnificent after all that heat.
Sunday 16. 4.
Now, the relaxing part of our trip. We go to the beach in the morning. There are hardly any tourists, and we are the only light-skinned people about. A boy with his father fishes with a net in the hand 2 m from the shore, suddenly they have 50 sardines in the net in one go. Also on the boats that are only 50-100 m off shore other boys fish with success. Larger boats come back from the sea and the fishermen immediately sell something on the beach direct from the nets into plastic-bags. -A dog sleeps in the sun like dead, only one metre from the bustling activity. The dogs are always like this in the heat and not like elsewhere in Mexico. Young girls and old men offer mangoes, pastries, hammocks, chains and shirts for sale.. The sand is so hot that one cannot run without shoes.
After a noon- tide sleep, we went in the afternoon to the small restaurant at the corner to the " Hora Feliz ", the happy hour, where one must pay for only one drink, but 2 can drink. We could still run along the beach where the beautiful hotel Santa Fe with its splendid terraces lies beside the bay. We decide to drink only one Cocktail and it is a high price and enjoy to gaze on the gigantic surf and over the whole bay and finally the sunset.
In the place where there were fishermen earlier, there is now a prohibited area for cars. There, exactly at the start, there is a new big restaurant. There are free Cocos-Cocktail, garlic-bread and cheese, it tastes good. I am already almost full as the Huacinango comes.
Monday 17. 4.
Off to change our money at the bank, however a queue of 40 people are there! Go elsewhere and buy lemonades. And then to the Puerto Angelito, also in the other direction, where many beautiful hotels are along the beach.
The place is well named when you see the giant Palms swaying in the sea breeze..
Tuesday 18. 4.
Now the beautiful Sight-seeing is over and we know, we have a hard day before us. We want to drive to San Gabriel on a relatively good gravel road and want to cross the Sierra from there on logging trails and want to drive to Miahuatlan. We have already driven the road from the other direction some years before. It is approximately 130 km to San Gabriel, but poor roads and never a signpost and almost no people to ask the way.
We therefore leave at 5.00 o'clock in the morning as it becomes light and have to collect on the way the plants that we discovered as the light improved: T. xerographica, T., roland-gosselini, T., capitata, T., pseudosetacea, T., schiedeana, and at Miahuatlan which is approximately 600 m high, T. variabilis and a form of T. polystachia with quite long primary bracts, like T. belloensis
Then, we keep an eye out for T. moorena at San Gabriel. At Rancho Costa Rica, 1200 m, 21 km after San .Gabriel., T mooreana EM891801, 12 km further on photograph T. mooreana and T. calothyrsus EM 891802.
The way forks more frequently, and becomes ever worse. The dust whirls up and often catches up with us. There are many small wooden bridges, although the track-width is for trucks. So we must often get out in order to find out what is the better side. Much is cleared to the right and left and the trunks lie at the ground. It seems better only for Left hand drives. At 1700 m, there is much T. nolleriana, but not easily accessible, Klaus returns with one piece. However. I go down to the brook-bed, very steep and find a single plant of Racinaea ghiesbreghtii EM891803, and am lucky to find a fallen tree with enough T.nolleriana, EM 891804, on it. Nevertheless collecting becomes a nuisance, because thousands of small horse-flies pounce on me. I leap and run to the car without the plants! It becomes moister. We see large plants with developing inflorescences but there is no time to stop.Twice we stop, never a signpost, never a human being. We re-trace our steps and Klaus is nervous as to whether we are in the right track.We come to gigantic trees, a giant lies on the forest floor. It is already 15.30, we are already somewhat nervous and I would have liked to hurry to the big tree which had many plants on it,but that would take another half hour again! Finally, we see an a car by the wayside and lumberjacks that we can ask the way. They say it is still 4 hours to Miahuatlan, but we are on the right track. Then, it becomes drier, we see T. magnusiana, T. juncea, T. fasciculata, T. dasyliriifolia, we breathe a sigh of relief, we have arrived in the civilization again.
Unfortunately a truck stands in the middle of the street so that we cannot get past it. Approximately 15 men and boys sit at the roadside and are happy drinking. Unfortunately, they are completely smashed. We try to find the driver, but no one answers. The men demand that we pay to be allowed to pass. Klaus tries to talk to them, vainly, they laugh and bawl and make threatening gestures. I remain in the car and am quite uncomfortable. After a long time we wonder whether to pay hoping for a truck to arrive from the other direction. Then the driver appears and lets us through. Now, logging trucks come towards us more frequently with gigantic tree trunks. The road was quite good on the second half of the journey and we arrived in Miahuatlan about 20.00, earlier than feared,.
It took us a long time to find the " hotel" in Miahuatlan in the darkness. We had already been there some times before, it lies exactly opposite the police station and so is relatively safe to leave the car outside the hotel. The hotel had already seen better days, it has beautiful wrought-iron doors, but the stairways are steep. On the bed there is only one sheet and pillow case, but we are righteously weary and glad that we have found the way after all.
A giant lies in the forest with plants left for the lumberjacks. —SeeDie Bromelie
