Tillandsia chaetophylla Mez

Literature references:

Acta Bot. Mex.: 76:82h FCBS (Web) Gardner 1982: 176 Labuda Till.-cal.: 1995 Morren Icons: kew 12-344*: kew 12-346* Rauh 1981, 1990: Abb. 3 , Fig. 31 Rauh 1986a: 58:32 Roguenant 2001: 275 Smith & Downs 1977: 763,766

*move your mouse pointer over the page numbers to see comment

Comments:

• Tillandsia chaetophylla/ sessemocinoi by Lopez-Ferrari, Espejo Serna, and Fernandez de Caleya in Acta Bot. Mex. 76: 77-88. 2006
  INTRODUCTION
  On the other hand, the plants coming from the states of Mexico, Morelos, Michoacan and Jalisco, do not correspond to the taxon described and for which we propose Tillandsia sessemocinoi.
  Of the numerous names used to designate to the Mexican species of the genus Tillandsia L., many were proposed in the XVIII and XIX centuries by European botanists, and consequently, the nomenclatural types of these taxa were deposited in herbaria of the old continent. Some copies got lost during the Second World War, others have still not been located and many have long histories of nomenclatural confusions, because they were not properly labeled when preserved. The above-mentioned, among other things, has hindered during much of the time, the correct application of the names to several Mexican taxa of Tillandsia. One of these is the species Tillandsia chaetophylla Mez.
  When collating the manuscript for Bromeliaceae in the Flora del Bajio and adjacent areas, some examples came to our attention coming from the area of Morelia identified as Tillandsia chaetophylla. This taxon was described by Mez (1896, p. 726) who in the protologue referred to three collections, namely: Jurgensen 13, Karwinsky s. n. and Pavón , s. n. deposited in the herbaria BM, FI, M and W (Holmgren et al 1990), although it does not indicate accurately that each collection was actually seen. Smith (1951, p. 481) lectotypifies the species, selecting for it the voucher for Pavón deposited in BM, which lacks relative data to the collector, numbers collected and the town; however, in the original label it is clearly distinguished in the writing of Martin de Sesse (1751-1808), director of the ‘Real Botanica Expedition a la Nueva Espana’ (1787-1803) who writes “6-1 / Tillandsia / subulata / sp. N”. As already explained different authors, among those McVaugh (1977, 2000), José Pavón Jimenez (1754-1840), one of the botanists of the Expedition to the Viceroyalty of Peru and Chile (1777-1787), had access to the Mexican collections deposited in the Flora Americana Office in Madrid, and from 1814 until little before his death, sold and gave leaves of them to different botanical and European collectors who in turn distributed them to different botanical institutions (Blanco Fernandez de Caleya, 2000). For the previously trferred collection, we conclude that the specimen deposited in BM (Pavón s. n.) comes without a doubt from the material collected during the expedition to the Nueva Espana.
  Since the journey of the third trip of the Real Expedition (McVaugh, 1977; Maldonado and Puig-Samper, 2000) passed near to Morelia, it was concluded that the type material of Tillandsia chaetophylla could come from this area and correspond to the specimens that are called T. acerosa, deposited in the Real Botanical Garden of Madrid (MA), the institution where the collection is but completes the examples of those obtained in the aforementioned exploratory effort “Herbario Sesse and Mocino". Dealing with two sheets later determined to be T. chaetophylla Mez, we find that in their hand written original labels, in a case for José Mariano Mocino (1757-1820) who was an outstanding participant in this expedition, and in the other for the chemist Jaime Senseve (? - 1805) one can read: 6-1 / Tillandsia acerosa." Also, there is another copy of this collection in the Field Museum (F) logged originally as Tillandsia acerosa by José Demetrio Rodríguez who helped Mariano Lagasca in the arrangement of the collections of Sesse and Mocino deposited in the Real Botanical Garden (MA), copying the original determinations of these two aforementioned members of the expedition.
  The specimen at BM is so much like the two from MA and that from F, they are undoubtedly the same species, although this undoubtedly is not a single collection, because the original labels do not show details of towns and they do not coincide in the original determination, which is in fact the only available information.
  Analysis of the original documents of the expedition, deposited in the files of the Real Jardin Botanico of Madrid, relative to the genus Tillandsia, does not clarify which is the first determination that Sesse and Mocitio assigned to this species. Among the files exist two related hand written documents for a copyist (ARJBM V, 5, 1 pages. 127 and 129); in the first of them it appears, amongst others, the entry “Acerosa. Tillands. Foliis filiformibus integerrimis spica lax paniculata. Desc.” and in second access this is crossed out. “ Acerosa. Tillandsia foliis acerosis”.
  In the Herbarium of Madrid another sheet exists of Tillandsia, where the epithet " subulata " appears and that has the number 5450 noted by Cuatrecasas (MA600160, negative of the Field Museum n° 41781) (cf. Blanco Fernandez of Caleya, 2000). On the label of this copy is written: “6 - 1 / “, With Tillandsia /subulata/N crossed out . and on the reverse of the same one reads 6-1 / Tillandsia / tenuifolia / [m. Sesse:] Corrige Sino/ nom. Jacq. / tab. maia." This material corresponds in fact to Tillandsia filifolia Schltdl. & Cham. and it was written down as such by Lyman B. Smith September 12 1936.
  It is important to mention that the specific epithets " acerosa " and ".subulata ", were neither worth enough to be published in the works of Sesse and Mocino (1893, 1894).
  In accordance with the aforementioned, the appropriate form of mentioning the lectotypification made by Smith (1951) is the following one: Tillandsia chaetophylla Mez, in C. DC., Monogr. Phan. 9: 726-727. 1896. Lectotype M. Sesse and J M Mocino s. n., distributed by J. Pavon (BM!).
  It is necessary to point out here that the name Tillandsia subulata Vell. (Vellozo, 1825 [ie. 1829]) corresponds to a Brazilian plant that does not grow in Mexico. In turn, that of T. subulata E. Morren ex Baker (1889), published without description and treated as a synonym of T. vestita Schltdl. & Cham. (= T. schiedeana Steud.) based on a specimen collected by Uhde with the number 182 and deposited in B, it is an invalid name, and in any event could not be used later being homonymous (Greuter et al 2000).
  The revision of numerous herbarium specimens, as well as the study of the plants under natural conditions, has allowed us to distinguish two taxa to which have been applied the name of T. chaetophylla. One of them comes from the east of the country, of the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz, while the other one is in the central west of the Mexico, in the states of Mexico, Morelos, Michoacan and Jalisco (Fig. 1). Although at first sight they could made a mistake, clear differences exist among them (Chart l, Fig. 2).
  The populations coming from Oaxaca and Veracruz, are those that correspond with the lectotype of Tillandsia chaetophylla and also coincide with the specimens of Jurgensen 13 (FI, G-DEL, OXF) and Karwinsky .s. n. (M), mentioned by Mez in the original description of this taxon, and it is to these therefore this name should be applied (Fig. 1).
  In consequence, the material selected as lectotype of Tillandsia chaetophylla was probably collected by Mocino in Mixteca or in Veracruz. during the expedition to the southeast at the beginning of 1793 (McVaugh, 1977) and not in the surrounding area near Morelia, as we had first supposed. We next include an upgraded description of this species. —See Acta Bot. Mex.