Tillandsia stricta var. stricta

Literature references:

Ehlers 2013b: 112 Morren Icons: kew 12-349* Smith & Downs 1977: 824

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Comments:

• The Mysterious Tillandsia rosea by WILHELM WEBER in J Brom. Soc. 32(6): 239-246, 271. 1982
  When professor John Lindley first described Tillandsia rosea in the Botanical Register Vol. 16 (1830) and pictured it on plate 1357 he certainly could not have foreseen the confusion over this species in the next 150 years and the difficulties it would make for the various taxonomists as they tried to categorize it and interpret it. Especially in the years following the second world war, in which tillandsia collecting really became popular, the most varying species and forms have been and still are being seen as the "true" rosea and are being sold at prices that boggle the imagination. Only in the last two years, thanks to the rewarding collecting efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Hromadnik (Austria) and Mr. and Mrs. Ehlers (Federal Republic of Germany), have we been able to study blooming, living material and make comparisons, so that now there is finally a certain clarity about the classification of T. rosea and the species considered to be identical with it as far as can be determined in the face of missing type material.
  But let me first depict the separate steps of this learning process as far as it has developed historically and has precipitated into the professional literature. So that the reader may be able to trace this path, I have included with this article the illustrations of the original plates and photographs of the species considered to be T. rosea Lindl.
  We begin our investigation with the original description by John Lindley in the Botanical Register:
  This extremely terse Latin description says: leaves ligulate, pointed, mealy (referring to the scale covering), spread; spikes oval, single, barely longer than the leaves; bracts oval, concave.
  Then Lindley adds: "Our drawing of this undescribed species of tillandsia was made some years since, from a plant in the possession of the Marchioness of Bath. It flowered in the month of May, but having afforded only a single specimen, we had not an opportunity of examining it in detail. It is, however, distinguished sufficiently by its ovate head of flowers scarcely higher than the leafs, and bright pink bracteae. A native of Brazil."
  So much for Lindley's original description. Along with plate 1357 it is considered to be the type, since no herbarium specimen was kept. Note particularly that no information is given in the description about the flowers themselves and their color and that the flowers are also not shown on the plate!
  The next step was the Austrian botanist J. G. Beer's description of our species in his book Die Familie der Bromeliaceen (1859) as Anoplophytum roseum: He considered the present-day subgenus Anoplophytum to be a separate genus. But he described it only from the picture and Lindley's text in the Botanical Register. He had no living plants or herbarium specimens at his disposal.
  Then 32 years later in Baker's Handbook of the Bromeliaceae (1889) we find Tillandsia rosea Lindl. 1830 together with Tillandsia recurvifolia listed as synonyms of Tillandsia dianthoidea Rossi (= T. aeranthos). The description of the flower color of T. rosea as white, which has subsequently always been repeated, begins with this listing in Baker's book. Tillandsia recurvifolia was described by Hooker in the Botanical Magazine Vol. 87 and pictured in plate 5246. His original description is as follows:
  
  Recurved-leaved Tillandsia. Tillandsia recurvifolia; foliis glaucescenti-lepidotis, e lata basi lanceolato-subulatis canaliculatis integerrimis, radicalibus insigniter recurvis, floralibus erecto-subpatentibus minus glaucis spicam aequantibus, scapo folioso brevissimo, spica late ovata subcapitata laxe bracteata, bracteis elliptico-oblongis acutissimis roseis, calycis albi laciniis lanceolatis mucronato-acutis basi in tubum unitis, corollae albae petalis spathulatis stamina superantibus filamentis supra medium crispato flexuosis.
  
  This is, as far as I can find, a new species of Tillandsia, evidently of the same group as, and nearly allied to, the pretty T. pulchella, figured in a late number of this Magazine, Tab. 5229, differing in the much broader, very glaucous, all very much recurved leafes, in the larger, almost sessile, and nearly ovate spikes of flowers, with much broader and pink-coloured, not red, bracts. We owe the possession of it to our friend, W. D. Christie, Esq., British Minister at Rio, who introduced it to Kew Gardens from Panama. I have already remarked, that easily as the Tillandsiae are to import living, and tenacious as they are of life, no plants are more difficult to preserve in cultivation for any length of time.
  
  Descr. Stemless. Radical leaves copious, densely imbricating at their broad base and thence becoming lanceolato-subulate, three to four inches long, channelled, thickly clothed with minute scales, which give them a hoary and very glaucescent appearance; the interior and superior leaves, which immediately surround the inflorescence, are more erect, less glaucous, but broader, in proportion to the length, at their base. Scape very short, leafy, terminated by a broad ovate spike or capitulum of flowers, laxly imbricated with large broad-oblong, very acute, rose-coloured scales, sometimes tipped with yellowish-green. The white flowers force back the rose-coloured bracts, and protrude a very little beyond them. Calyx of three erect imbricating almost mucronate sepals, nearly as long as the corolla, united into a tube at their base. Petals pure white, with a spathulate limb and broad white claws. Stamens as long as the claws. Filaments linear-subulate, crisped and tortuose above the middle. Anthers small, linear. Ovary ovate, tapering into a thickened style, and terminated by three cuneate nearly erect stigmas. MAY 1st, 1861."
  
  But as far as is known no herbarium specimen of T. recurvifolia Hook. 1861 was preserved, so that here too the original description and plate must serve as the type.
  
  In contrast to Baker, Carl Mez considered Tillandsia rosea Lindl. 1830 as a variety of Tillandsia pulchella and described it in Martii Flora Brasiliensis III. 3. (1894) p. 603 and also in his first bromeliad monograph in DeCandolle, Monographiae Phanerogamarum Vol. 9 (1896) p. 825 as Tillandsia pulchella var. rosea. As synonyms he listed T. rosea Lindl. 1830, Anoplophytum roseum Beer 1857 and T. recurvifolia Hook 1861. As a habitat he cites Guyana (?) and also lists the following herbarium documentation: Bolivia, ad Soratam, alt. 2650 m: Mandon n. 1184, M. Bang n. 1628. According to L.B. Smith in Flora Neotropica (1977) these two specimens are identical with T. tenuifolia L.
  However, in his second monograph in Engler's Pflanzenreich (1935) Carl Mez again cites T. recurvifolia Hook. as valid and further lists as synonyms T. langsdorffii Mez 1894 (?), T. rosea Lindl. 1830, Anoplophytum roseum Beer 1857 and T. pulchella var. rosea (Lindl.) Mez 1894. As herbarium documentation he cites only the specimen in the Leningrad herbarium, which was the basis of his description of T. langsdorffii in the Flora Brasiliensis in 1894, and adds: "As a habitat Panama is cited; this is incorrect. The plant comes from Brazil, state of Rio de Janeiro (Langsdorff)." Compare this habitat information (Panama) above to that of the original description of Tillandsia recurvifolia Hook. 1861; I will return to this fact at the end of the article.
  This is the extent of the knowledge about our mysterious T. rosea Lindl. shortly before the second world war, and just 10 years after the end of the war we find it revalidated by L. B. Smith in Bromeliaceae of Brazil (1955) and synonyms Anoplophytum roseum (Lindl.) Beer 1857, T. recurvifolia Hook. 1861, T. langsdorfii Mez 1894 and T. pulchella var. rosea (Lindl.) Mez 1894 listed. As herbarium documentation he cites: Rio de Janeiro: Langsdorff (LE) and Teresopolis: Brade and Pereira 20062 (RB, US).
  Now we have arrived at the time when the Bromeliad Society was founded and bromeliad cultivation spread quickly in America and in Europe and great collections of living plants came about outside the botanical gardens. More and more growers have done their own collecting in the tropics and plants have appeared designated the "true T. rosea, " among which is a hard, secund-leafed tillandsia, which grows along with T. sprengeliana on vertical cliff sides in the Organ Mountains near Rio de Janeiro. Alfred Blass presented it as Tillandsia rosea Lindl. in the Journal of the Bromeliad Society Vol. 28 (1978) p. 32-34 with a color photograph. The same species was earlier pictured in Walter Richter's book Zimmerpflanzen von heute und morgen - Bromeliaceen as T. regnellii.
  If one compares the illustrations of this plant with Lindley's original plate from the Botanical Register one easily sees that it is not identical with T. rosea Lindl. 1830! This tillandsia was described by Walter Till in Plant Systematics and Evolution 138 (1981) p. 293-295 as Tillandsia carminea sp. n., holotype: Brazil, State of Rio de Janeiro, Serra dos Orgaos SE of Teresopolis, 1950 msm, leg. Dr. H. et L. Hromadnik Nr. 6160, Aug. 1980 (WU). I also have at my disposal a topotype of this species, leg. R. Ehlers, 1900 msm, July 1981 (WEB 265). In the second edition (1981) of Prof. Rauh's book Bromelien, Tillandsia carminea Till 1981 is still described as T. rosea Lindl. 1830 and pictured in a black-and-white photograph; but again the white flowers are mentioned. T. carminea, however, blooms blue-violet as does T. stricta and based on the flower parts is hardly distinguishable from it.
  In L. B. Smith's monograph in Flora Neotropica 14.1. (1977) p. 822, T. rosea Lindl. 1830 is still cited as valid and as synonyms are given Anoplophytum roseum (Lindl.) Beer 1857, T. recurvifolia Hook. 1861 and T. pulchella var. rosea (Lindl.) Mez 1894. On the other hand T. langsdorffii Mez 1894 has been removed from the list of synonyms. The accompanying photograph of the Leningrad type specimen of T. langsdorffii reveals at the bottom right that L. B. Smith was able to examine this type only as late as 1959 and determined it to be identical with T. stricta Sol. ex Ker-Gawl. 1813. As herbarium documentation of T. rosea he cites: Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Serra dos Orgaos, Teresopolis, Sept. 1949, Brade and Pereira 20062 (RB, US): April 1959, Abendroth 109 (US); 117 (US); Ponta do Forte, Arraial do Cabo, Cabo Frio, Jul. 1965, Segadas-Vianna 4320 (R, US). An hatch drawing after Segadas-Vianna 4320 is reproduced as Fig. 258 D - E, but here, too, a comparison with Lindley's plate shows that the two are not identical.
  In 1981 Frau Renate Ehlers scoured the cliff walls of Cabo Frio for tillandsias that could be identical with T. rosea Lindl. but found only T. sprengeliana and the same saxicolous form as Segadas-Vianna 4320; the latter, however, after careful studies has been found to be identical with Tillandsia neglecta Pereira 1971, described in Bradea 1, p. 78, pl. 2, holotype: Cabo Frio, D. Sucre s.n. (HB 50230).
  In Flora Neotropica L. B. Smith places T. neglecta Pereira as a synonym for T. tenuifolia var. surinamensis (but with a question mark). The specimens which I examined (WEB 324 and living material, leg. R. Ehlers, Jul. 1981, Cabo Frio) regularly show, however, only a few fused sepals and accordingly do not belong to the polymorphic T. tenuifolia, whose posterior sepals are always fused. T. neglecta Pereira is more probably related to T. stricta Solander ex Ker-Gawler 1813, but distinct from it. (The original description of T. stricta Sol. is designated with G. According to information from Dr. Vickery, British Museum, that is the sign of Ker-Gawler).
  We have now determined that a "true" Tillandsia rosea Lindl. cannot be identified up to this point. So what sort of plant had Lindley described and pictured? In contrast to the earlier taxonomists we today are in the lucky position of being able to study and compare a large number of living plants in collections. For example, a population of the variable T. stricta is found near Teresopolis, which in its non-blooming stage totally resembles Lindley's picture. It also has the short flower scape, so that the inflorescence is hardly longer than the leaves, a feature which is considered significant for T. rosea along with the white flowers. Walter Till also mentions that in the introduction to his description of Tillandsia carminea and he writes: "In examining the original description of T. rosea Lindley (1830) it has been determined, however, that the plant is merely a T. stricta Solander not yet in full bloom. An examination of L. B. Smith's (1977) listing of synonyms for T. rosea, T. pulchella Hooker var. rosea (Lindley) Mez in Martius and T. recurvifolia Hooker has shown that both belong to the quite variable T. tenuifolia L. Thus it was necessary to withdraw the name T. rosea and to describe the present species anew."
  But Herr Till is mistaken here insofar as T. pulchella v. rosea cannot be considered a synonym for T. tenuifolia, because Mez based his T. pulchella var. rosea on T. rosea Lindl., and if this becomes synonymous with T. stricta then automatically T. pulchella var. rosea, and Anoplophytum roseum Beer also become synonymous with T. stricta, but not T. recurvifolia Hook. 1861, whose identity we have not yet clarified!
  Thus the synonym list for T. stricta should be extended as follows: —See Smith & Downs 1977