Considered a synonym of Tillandsia tectorum E. Morren. Note by Rauh: "I enclose a black and white photograph of the type plant. I myself believe that T. rupicola is nothing else than T. tectorum. A notation on the picture indicates that the plant was collected in front of the village of Ona forming dense clumps of considerable extent. In times past I have searched for T. rupicola for days and days in the vicinity of Ona. Ecuador. I know very well every cliff and rock in the area and have found only T. tectorum in all varieties, but never T. rupicola. Nobody has it in cultivation. I would be very glad to have a plant."
—SeeRauh 1981dp. 178
Listed as synonym of Tillandsia tectorum E. Morren —SeeLuther & Sieff 1994p. 30
Considered a good species to its own right. Note: The photo of the type referred by Rauh 1981 shows clearly that it is, on no account, one of the forms of T. tectorum. In addition to the unicoloured, bright violet petals, the plant has a short and globular inflorescence that is not present in T. tectorum. For many years, the Brazilian T. sucrei was confused with T. rupicola. This shows the sort of problems that need to be addressed. The description (in Italics) in Smith and Downs (1977: 865) has been amended by adding characteristics (in Roman type) from plants found at the type locality.
The protologue for T. rupicola refers to a "simple,... very multifarious spike". Smith & Downs (1977: 865) shows 'depauperate compound'. We have found that at least the lowermost spikes consist of two fertile, i.e. well developed flowers, so the inflorescence is actually compound. —SeeHromadnik 2005ap. 81
T. rupicola is linked to this group in a most controversial way. Its vegetative similarity to T. tectorum - particularly in the not-blooming condition - gave rise to the following comment by Prof. W Rauh ( JBS 31: 178. 1981):
"I enclose a black and white photograph of the type plant. I myself believe that T. rupicola is nothing else than T. tectorum. A notation on the picture indicates that the plant was collected in front of the village of Ona forming dense clumps of considerable extent.
" In times past I have searched for T. rupicola for days and days in the vicinity of Ona. Ecuador. I know very well every cliff and rock in the area and have found only T. tectorum in all varieties, but never T. rupicola. Nobody has it in cultivation. I would be very glad to have a plant "
The photo of the plant referred to shows clearly that it is, on no account, one of the forms of T. tectorum. In addition to the unicoloured, bright violet petals, the plant has a short and globular inflorescence that is not present in T. tectorum.
For many years, the Brazilian T. sucrei was confused with T. rupicola. This shows the sort of problems that need to be addressed.
The description (in Italics) in Smith and Downs (1977: 865) has been amended by adding characteristics (in Roman type) from plants found at the type locality:
The protologue for T. rupicola refers to a "simple,... very multifarious spike". Smith & Downs (1977: 865) shows 'depauperate compound'. We have found that at least the lowermost spikes consist of two fertile, i.e. well developed flowers, so the inflorescence is actually compound.
More than any of the other species, T. rupicola tends to prematurely form offsets (therefore occurring "in dense mats"), with very short caulescent growth. The plant is characterised by its extremely fine "fuzzy-haired scales on the leaves and inflorescence" and, above all, by its very short spikes with, at the most, two fertile flowers, and relatively long primary bracts that exceed the spikes by about 1/3. Also, the short flowers and the extremely small, completely glabrous sepals distinguish it from all other examined plants of the group, even from T. reducta, the only other known species with a reduced inflorescence. Finally, the northernmost collection of T. reducta to date lies 450 km away in Cajamarca.
Smith & Downs (1977: 865) placed T. rupicola between T. paleacea C. Presl and T. cacticola L.B. Sm., but it is not related to either one!
Tillandsia rupicola Baker, Jour Bot London 26: 13. 1888. Rauh considers this to be a synonym of T. tectorum, see J Brom Soc 31: 177-8. 1981
Plant caulescent, flowering to 9 cm high.
Leaves many, densely polystichous, 6 cm long, covered with very large spreading linear sub ferruginous scales;
Sheaths triangular , merging with the blades;
Blades spreading to recurved, involute-subulate, filiform-attenuate.
Scape erect, shorter than the leaves;
Scape-bracts imbricate, ovate-elliptic, puberulous, foliaceous-laminate.
Inflorescence depauperate compound, ellipsoid, 16-24 mm long, 9-10 mm in diameter; Primary bracts densely imbricate, elliptic, caudate;
Spikes 1-flowered.
Floral bracts acute, to 12 mm long, exceeding the sepals, chartaceous, nerved, covered with subspreading ferruginous scales.
Petals violet; blade 3 mm long.
Tillandsia rupicola - Further comments by Lieselotte Hromadnik in Die Brom 2: 52-53. 2006
In the relatively short time since the appearance of the special edition 5 of Die Bromelie “ T. tectorum Complex”, Hromadnik 2005, more observations have been made.
The most interesting observation involves T. rupicola Baker.
As already advised in the Special Edition, T. rupicola is probably the most controversial species in the complex. Even renowned botanists like Professor Rauh questioned the existence of this species in the quoted type locality.
Apart from the illustrations in Hromadnik (2005) (copy of the herbarium specimen on page 81 and location photos in the flowering area on page 83, no collections of plants, that were unequivocally assigned to this species, have become public until now.
The Tillandsia portrayed in this article is of a specimen from the collection of A. Boker with a documented origin from Ona, Ecuador. Not only is this place of discovery the same as that in the original description of the species, but also in its habit and the construction of its inflorescence, which correspond to a plant that is doubtless T. rupicola. These collections show the stubborn doubters of the actual existence of T. rupicola that it is a species in its own right!
Characteristically for this relatively small growing species is the fruiting time formation of adventitious offsets, so that the plants already form more or less large clumps before the next flowering stage. Added to the species specifications are the singular coloured blue flowers and the characteristics of the inflorescence even more clearly shown in the photograph of the herbarium specimen in Hromadnik (2005): the short, two-flowered, non-spreading spike, that is virtually covered by the long primary bracts and forming an egg shaped, compact head.
It clearly differs from the larger growing T. tectorum E. Morren fa. gigantea L. Hrom. with its long, many flowered, spreading spike, whose southernmost population in from Rio Leon, Nabon, Prov. Azuay, also plants with engular flowered petals are known. The flower colour varies from purple-violet,( see Hromadnik 2005: 31,0 to intensive blue-violet.
The one or two coloured petals are not necessarily a constant characteristic of the species, and furthermore still occurs in T. reducta L.B. Smith. With this species, that is actually described as having singular coloured violet petals, there are even different flower colours within collections from the type locality. Above all there are plants with truly singular coloured violet flowers, then quickly change to bicoloured white/violet petals to fully violet and finishing with plants permanently with two coloured flowers.
This will not be the last supplementary comment on the species in this complex, because of the many facets of the species contained in it and there are still some surprises to come as it becomes much wider. —SeeHromadnik 2005a
