Gouda 2019a (Article) Tillandsia [German]

Are Tillandsia hitchcockiana and Tillandsia cereicola really two different species?

Author(s):—E.J. Gouda

Publication:—Die Bromelie 2019(2): 44-49. (2019)

German title:—Sind Tillandsia hitchcockiana und Tillandsia cereicola wirklich zwei verschiedene Arten?

Abstract:—Mez described Tillandsia cereicola (Mez 1906) in the ‘Additamenta monographica’. Nearly 25 years later Lyman B. Smith described T. hitchcockiana (Smith 1930) in his first ‘Studies in the Bromeliaceae I’, one of in total 17 sequential publications over the years. In the meanwhile many specimen, named as one of those, were collected and spread over living collections: the smaller plants mostly as Tillandsia cereicola and the larger ones as T. hitchcockiana. In the original descriptions there is not much difference in size between the two species (both to ca. 1 m tall). Beside T. cereicola Smith mentions T. incurva (1864), T. patula (1906) und T. subimbricata (1887) = T. elongata var. subimbricata (Baker) L.B.Sm. (1953) as possible relatives of T. hitchcockiana. But he also mentions that the flowers of T. subimbricata are unkown at that moment.