Luther JBS 1982
Ecuador is home to a number of very ornamental and much cultivated members of Tillandsia subgenus Phytarrhiza; of these, T. cyanea is probably the best known. This relatively easily recognized group can be characterized by having broad, spreading petal blades and very short stamens and style. The majority of the Ecuadorian species are mesic epiphytes although two species (T. caerulea and T. straminea) are adapted to rather harsh, xeric environments. Many of these plants have been introduced into cultivation, often under incorrect names.
While checking the voucher specimens for the Flora of the Rio Palenque Science Center (Dodson & Gentry, 1978) I realized that the plant identified as Tillandsia dyeriana Andre was incorrectly determined. Tillandsia dyeriana is a plant of rather few leaves arranged in an erect, subbulbous rosette and has floral bracts that much exceed the flowers. The Rio Palenque plant has an open, spreading rosette of 15-25 leaves with the flowers much exceeding the floral bracts. In addition, the flowers of the Rio Palenque taxon are 2-3 times the diameter of those of T. dyeriana. Comparison of the Rio Palenque plant with the plate accompanying the original description of T. dyeriana shows that these are two distinct species.
Confusion of these two taxa has not been limited to this one publication as Rauh (1970) had some years earlier published a photograph of this plant as T. dyeriana. More recently (Rauh, 1979) he stated that the material previously illustrated as T. dyeriana was probably the same as T. nubis Gilmartin.
The description of Tillandsia nubis Gilmartin (Gilmartin, 1968) indicates that this species has large (up to 45 mm long) violet petals. Examination of the type specimen of T. nubis at US confirms this description. The plant previously misidentified as T. dyeriana has small (to 25 mm long) white petals. Also the floral bracts of T. nubis are much narrower toward the base than those of the white flowered taxon. In shape and size they closely resemble those of T. hamaleana E. Morr. , another violet or blue flowered species that is abundant at the type locality of T. nubis (pers. obs.) Further collections will be necessary in order to determine if these two taxa are distinct.
Because the white flowered plant could not be identified as either Tillandsia hamaleana or T. nubis and since no other Phytarrhiza tillandsias from the northern Andes seemed to be at all related I was prepared to describe this plant as a new species closely allied to T. nubis. In January 1981 Mrs. Georgia Waggoner of Morris, Oklahoma sent to the BIC a number of freshly cut specimens acquired by her and her husband on a plant collecting trip to Costa Rica. Among these was a specimen that was unmistakably the same as the white flowered Ecuadorian plant. My first impression was that a mixup had occurred and that the wrong collection data had been sent. Mrs. Waggoner replied that no mistake had been made and she remembered the plant in question being plucked from a tree. What I had originally believed to be an Ecuadorian endemic appeared to have a much more extensive range, not impossible since two of its relatives (T. anceps and T. monadelpha) are found over a considerably larger area. A check of the recorded tillandsias from Central America showed that this relatively common Ecuadorian species was very close to a rather obscure Costa Rican plant described by Mez and Werckle early in this century as T. venusta.
The type specimen of Tillandsia venusta Mez & Werckle consists of a rosette and a detached, shattered fruiting inflorescence. Only two floral bracts are visible on the Field Museum photograph of the type specimen but they show the broadly ovate base of the floral bract that is characteristic of the Ecuadorian plant. The description of T. venusta states that the floral bracts are not incurved and are ecarinate. Careful examination of the photograph reveals that the one nearly entire floral bract is somewhat incurved at the apex and appears to be sharply folded. The floral bracts of the new Costa Rican collection are quite distinctly incurved and are ecarinate to slightly carinate at the apex. The floral bracts are rather thin and it is often difficult to tell if the bract is actually keeled or merely nerved and sharply folded. In all other characters the new Costa Rican collection and the plants from western Ecuador fit nicely within T. venusta and I consider them to be conspecific.
