Encyclopedia of Bromeliads

Derek Butcher - Co-author

Born: 1934 – 2024

Address: Adelaide,
Australia

eMail: tillands@senet.com.au

Photo: Derek and Tillandsia mollis

Brom.Career: Born in the UK, but became an Australian in 1957. From then on he realised that Adelaide was a great place to grow Cactus. By the 1970’s he was corresponding with Karel Knize in Peru who shortly after included Tillandsias in his various collecting trips for Cactus around Peru. These were the good old days when importing was fairly easy and many Tillandsias arrived in Adelaide. Those who know Karel will realise that any similarity with the plant and label were coincidental! But the plants were not hybrids. Some of the original imports have not yet flowered and been identified!
In 1977 he was working towards the formation of the Bromeliad Society of South Australian and has held executive positions ever since. In the 1980’s he stirred up the Australian Bromeliad hybridists and started publishing lists of hybrids made in that Country. In 2000 he took over the reins of the International Bromeliad Cultivar Registrar until his resignation in 2008 when he was appointed as an Honorary Trustee of the BSI.
He has always been interested in small growing Tillandsias and in this same period he was busy translating papers by Dr Walter Till on the subgenus Diaphoranthema. In corresponding with Walter to answer an untold number of queries he was able to import many of Walter’s collections in 1994 to add to those from Knize.In Derek’s eyes, small has always been beautiful.

Derek is an auhtor of many papers about Bromeliaceae. Click here for a full literatrure list sorted by year.

Born:	1934 – 2024
Address:	Adelaide, Australia
eMail:	tillands@senet.com.au
Photo:	Derek and Tillandsia mollis
Brom.Career:	Born in the UK, but became an Australian in 1957. From then on he realised that Adelaide was a great place to grow Cactus. By the 1970’s he was corresponding with Karel Knize in Peru who shortly after included Tillandsias in his various collecting trips for Cactus around Peru. These were the good old days when importing was fairly easy and many Tillandsias arrived in Adelaide. Those who know Karel will realise that any similarity with the plant and label were coincidental! But the plants were not hybrids. Some of the original imports have not yet flowered and been identified! In 1977 he was working towards the formation of the Bromeliad Society of South Australian and has held executive positions ever since. In the 1980’s he stirred up the Australian Bromeliad hybridists and started publishing lists of hybrids made in that Country. In 2000 he took over the reins of the International Bromeliad Cultivar Registrar until his resignation in 2008 when he was appointed as an Honorary Trustee of the BSI. He has always been interested in small growing Tillandsias and in this same period he was busy translating papers by Dr Walter Till on the subgenus Diaphoranthema. In corresponding with Walter to answer an untold number of queries he was able to import many of Walter’s collections in 1994 to add to those from Knize.In Derek’s eyes, small has always been beautiful. Derek is an auhtor of many papers about Bromeliaceae. Click here for a full literatrure list sorted by year.

Derek Butcher - Co-author

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