Gouda 2020k (Article) Racinaea [bi-lingual]

Growing the Only one Bromeliad from the Galapagos Islands

Author(s):—E.J. Gouda

Publication:—Die Bromelie 2020(3): 116-121. (2020)

German title:—Kultur der einzigen Bromelie der Galapagos Inseln

Abstract:—We have grown Racinaea insularis (Mez) Spencer & Smith (1993), the only bromeliad from the Galapagos Islands, from several sources for the last 20 years and it seems to be easy to grow. Originally Racinaea insularis was described as Tillandsia insularis by Mez (1896) with a short description in Latin. In the monograph by Smith & Downs (1977) a slightly different short description was given but both descriptions have the feature ‘flowers erect, mostly appressed to the rachis’, which is not the case in this species. The flowers are diverging from the rachis and then turning upward (secund), a characteristic that can be lost by pressing a specimen for a herbarium voucher.