This beautifull plant is a large epiphyte, relatively rare in the misty humid highly diverse cloud forest of the Venezuelan Andes in the state of Merida (San Eusebio) and Tachira (headwaters of Quinimari River), at altitudes ranging from 2100 to 2400 m above sea level.
The cloud forest Selva Nublada Montano baja, where our species was first found (San Eusebio), has been partly cut, and many of the plant species originally frequent there are now in critical danger. This forest is characterized by having at least three stories, with an irregular canopy which varies between 20 and 35m high. Mean annual temperatures vary between 14° and 18°C, annual rainfall varies between 1500 and 2500 mm, and the cloud rate is high during the whole year (Ataroff 2003). There are more than 100 species of trees in San Eusebio. Dominant plant families in the area include: Lauraceae, Kubiaceae, Melastomataceae, Araliaceae, Arecaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Myrtaceae, Piperaceae and Solanaceae, and within the vascular epiphytes Orchidaceae has more than 120 species.
There are at least eight species of Bromeliads frequently found in the locality where the new species was collected. Pitcairnia meridensis Kl. ex Mez is terrestrial, the rest are usually epiphytes: Guzmania mitis L.B. Smith, Racinaea tetrantha (Ruiz et Pav) M. Spencer & L.B. Sm., Tillandsia biflora Ruiz et Pav., T. complanata Benth., T. longifolia Baker, T. tovarensis Mez and Vriesea tequendamae (Andre) L.B. Smith.
A different grouping of bromeliads live some miles away from the type locality, within a drier vegetation, and as part of semideciduous and secondary forests, which occur in the state of Merida at lower altitudes. There you can see Catopsis nutans (Sw) Griseb., Guzmania monostachya (L.) Rusby ex Mez, Racinaea tenuispica (Andre) M. Spencer & L.B. Sm., Tillandsia fendleri Griseb., T. myriantha Baker, T. juncea (Ruiz et Pav) Poiret and T. variabilis Schltr. are common. Sometimes it is also possible to find Puya floccosa (Linden) E. Morr. Ex Mez, as terrestrial, and Tillandsia biflora Ruiz et Pav, T. complanata Benth. and the very interesting T. francisci W Till & J.R. Grant, growing as epiphytes.
The new species was collected by the authors for the first time in 1994, but was not properly identified until now. New collections, a more detailed study of the living plants, more complete literature, and information obtained from Julio Betancur (Colombia) and Francisco Morales (Costa Rica), have led us to conclude that it is a plant not described previously. Main references used in our investigation include keys to the subgenera and description of species of tillandsia published by Smith (1957) for Colombia, Gilmartin (1972) for Ecuador, and Smith & Downs (1977). Other important references used in our study include, the treatment of Bromeliaceae for Flora Mesoamericana by Utley and Burt-Utley (1994), and books with photographs published by Oliva-Esteve (2000); Oliva-Esteve (2002), Shimizu & Takizawa (1998) and Oliva-Esteve & Steyermark (1987).Additional information was obtained from Garcia & Betancur (2002) and Till and Grant (2003), and from internet sources at the Missouri Botanical Garden's VAST database http://mobot.mobot.org/W3T/Search/ vast.html and the International Plant Names Index http://wwwipni.org/ipni/plant-namesearchpage.do
Initially we thought that the new taxon could be placed within Allardtia Baker, a large subgenus comprised by more than 150 species, as treated by Smith & Downs (1977). However, partial results published by Barfuss, Samuel et al. (2005), and Till and Barfuss (2006) strongly indicate that Allardtia is not a natural group (not monophyletic), and therefore includes species from diverse origins. Due to the large number of taxa involved, and the lack of a complete taxonomic and phylogenetic work within the genus, it is not possible to propose close affinities to our species. —SeeJ. Bromeliad Soc.
