In December 2001 we also discovered specimens in the main street of Miahuatlan down to the coast and also in the gigantic forest-areas between Miahuatlan and San Gabriel. In 2005 in the mountains near Nejapa near Agua Blanca
In our trip to Mexico in 1978 we had originally found this pretty Tillandsia. At that time we thought it to be a grey form of T. atrococcinea Matuda but our friend Dr Jurg Rutschmann who had collected this plant earlier, had another opinion. On following trips, we collected this plant again and again and took photographs, as well as the green plant with the so notable black leaf sheaths that we assumed was T. atrococcinea Matuda.
Already, as reported in Die Bromelie No. 1 1990 , I had begun a particular interest in T.oaxacana, because no one seemed to really know this plant. We received even from botanical gardens many different plants under this name, that corresponded to the description but were usually forms of T. macdougallii L. B. Smith. Only our friend Dr. Jürgen Rutschmann from Basel shared our doubts.
I had determined that both T. macdougallii and T. oaxacana had been collected in December 1947 near Lachatao in the state Oaxaca by Mac Dougall. Both plants were described by L. B. Smith in 1949. A so famous and highly qualified botanist like him could never publish 2 plants that come from the same location but with so many different characteristics.
In February 1988 Klaus and I drove to Lachatao. Unfortunately, we could find only T. macdougallii L. B. Smith. However in the wide surroundings in the Sierra San Felipe below the Pass on the road to Oaxaca after Valle National we found T. macdougallii L. B. Smith and T. oaxacana together. We also found them on the route Tlaxiaco–Laguna and Tlaxiaco Nuyoo
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To solve the puzzle of T. oaxacana, I wrote to Professor L. B. Smith in Washington. In February 1988, he sent me an excellent large photo of the Holotype of T. oaxacana L. B. Smith. deposited in the Smithsonian Institute.
Now it was clear, without any doubt, that the same plant, had been described by Matuda 18 years later as T. atrococcinea Matuda. In my article, I therefore put T. atrococcinea Matuda as synonym to T. oaxacana L. B. Smith. I also pointed out in 1990 on the route from Oaxaca to Puerto Angel I had found a smaller deviant form with greyer, appressed scaled leaves and a denser inflorescence.
Again and again, when I was in this area, I took advantage of the opportunity to collect plants, to photograph and to study them extensively. On later trips, I determined that this plant has a rather large range in the highlands of Oaxaca.
In the same area on the route from Pochutla towards Miahutalan, where T. pseudooaxacana grows, we found T. oaxacana L. B. Smith, however 300 m higher. Both plants never mixed
After many years of examination, I have decided that the small grey plant is an individual species, that differs in many ways from T. oaxacana, and at last, therefore now wish to publish this pretty new species. —SeeDie Bromelie
