Tillandsia caballosensis Ehlers
Literature references:
Comments:
- -Habitat and Range: In addition to the type locality in Guerrero, where the plant grows near the road to Filo de Caballos at an altitude of 2000-2300 m in large masses, the species was also collected between Altamirano and Ixtapa by the Hromadnik family. Mrs. Lieselotte Hromadnik pointed out, that some plants of this collection had white, not green flowers.
Cultivation: In winter Tillandsia caballosensis should be cultivated not too warm and moist, in summer it is recommended to keep the plants outside.
History: On our trip to Guerrero in December 1999, I first found the plant with Lydia and Gerhard Kohres and Kurt and Helga Bohme on the road to Filo de Caballos for the first time. Because we saw no inflorescences, we thought that it was Tillandsia ignesiae, because the habit was nearly the same. Only the plants were somewhat smaller and the leaves a little more strongly scaled than Tillandsia ignesiae, which we had collected at other locations. Later, when we cleaned the plants in the evening and wanted to pack them, we found some remains of old inflorescences. To our great astonishment, it was not a simple long spike but a small capitulum however, like Tillandsia plumosa. But we were all agreed that it was not Tillandsia plumosa.
At home, the plant flowered after some time, and the inflorescence was composed of several small spikes. However the peduncle was not densely covered with long peduncle bracts but almost bare. Also, the plant has little else in common with Tillandsia plumosa, as it forms a true small solid bulb at the base like T. ignesiae and also has clearly undulated leaf blades.
In December 2000, we drove to the area again where we had found the plants in order to explore it more completely. This time we already found large quantities of the small, star-like, white beauty at a height of 1800 m on oak trees. Here, the plants were somewhat larger and better nurtured than the higher growing forms which we had found on the previous trip.
A few months after our return several plants flowered in my collection from both locations. I was lucky that at the same time Tillandsia plumosa also flowered. To my great joy, Jurgen Lautner told me on the phone that the Tillandsia ignesiae, (which we had found together on 24.03.1998 in Michoacan between Quiroga and Guanajuato), was flowering. He sent me a parcel containing with two flowering plants in it. So I now had the whole complex available to compare simultaneously, which really facilitated my work, because now the differences could be determined easily and exactly. It is especially important for me that I always have living and flowering material of new species, and, if possible, also of their close relatives. It would be impossible for me to work solely with herbarium material. Our first assessment, that the plant might be a form of Tillandsia plumosa, not proof true, rather, it belongs to the relationship around T. ignesiae. However differences to the latter were so manifest that the plant should be considered as a separate species.
In February 2004, I was in Guerrero once again with Jurgen and Uli Lautner, Manfred Kretz and Wolfgang Schindhelm. My friends were already very excited because of the plants I had told them about, and we were very eager to know if we would actually be able to find them on the way to Filo de Caballos. On the route from Milpillas we had already seen many interesting tillandsias and photographed them. Particularly at the location where Tillandsia lydiae Ehlers occurs, we remained for a long time exploring and looking for other tillandsias which occur there. Again and again, we had heard from experts the supposition that Tillandsia lydiae is a hybrid. We did not need to search for long in this area at altitude of 800-1000 m to find the plant. But except for Tillandsia lydiae we could only find T. circinnatoides Matuda. After many repeated explorations in different years of the area in which Tillandsia lydiae grows, we can exclude it being a hybrid. Interestingly we discovered some hybrids of Tillandsia circinnatoides x T. lydiae.
Tillandsia caput-medusae Morren has its range some hundred metres higher. And here, there were also a lot of hybrids of Tillandsia caput-medusae x T. circinnatoides. We found a tree, on which both parents as well as the hybrids grew together. It was photographed diligently, because it was extremely interesting to determine how dif¬ferent the plants were: some resembled more Tillandsia circinnatoides, while others more resembled T. caput-medusae.
As we came into higher areas we found Tillandsia caballosensis right and left of the way in several locations, both on light oaks, as well as, somewhat higher, on pine trees. The species is wide-spread in this area. To our joy, they were in flower and we all took a whole series of photos. —See Ehlers 2009a
