Tillandsia ionantha var. vanhyningii M.B.Foster

Literature references:

Ancona et al. 2022: 8,13,14* Baensch & Baensch 1994: 196 Bromtravels (Web) Die Bromelie: 2000:6: 2015(3): 127 FCBS (Web) Isley III 1987: 65 J. Bromeliad Soc.: 7:70b 43:161 Mak 1996: 18 Roguenant 2001: 434 Shimizu & Takizawa 1998: 60 Shimizu 1992: 19 Smith & Downs 1977: 913 U.S. Nat. Herb.

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Comments:

• This new variety is growing in masses and clinging tenaciously to the limestone rocks in the most impossible positions that one could imagine. In these colonies of little silver stars the rosettes are one inch in diameter with leaves one half to three-quarters inch long.
  So rarely do these rosettes send forth flowers that even if one searches very closely for a sign of flower or seed pod, it is almost never found.
  When first observing the plant it would be almost certainly thought to be a new species, and only after the plant was brought back to the Bromelario in Orlando was the first flower seen.
  The dark violet tubular flowers, one to three, emerge directly from the axis of the leading heads without any scape and show it to be none other than a variety of This new variety is growing in masses and clinging tenaciously to the limestone rocks in the most impossible positions that one could imagine. In these colonies of little silver stars the rosettes are one inch in diameter with leaves one half to three-quarters inch long.
  So rarely do these rosettes send forth flowers that even if one searches very closely for a sign of flower or seed pod, it is almost never found.
  When first observing the plant it would be almost certainly thought to be a new species, and only after the plant was brought back to the Bromelario in Orlando was the first flower seen.
  The dark violet tubular flowers, one to three, emerge directly from the axis of the leading heads without any scape and show it to be none other than a variety of T. ionantha.
  The compact mat of rosettes gives the appearance of hundreds of plants growing closely together, but finally upon procuring, at great risk, a few bunches, the true conditions of its growth, we then learned. Here were hundreds of rosettes emanating from a criss-cross mat of elongated, caulescent stems hidden underneath and attached to the rock with stiff thread-like roots. They all appeared to be connected so there was no way of telling actually how many different plants existed. The caulescent growth is continuous and new plant heads and roots emerge from the bases of the old mature leaves to form new leads.
  It is a pleasure to name this new variety of T. ionantha in honor of the Van Hynings who have become such enthusiastic collectors (the hard way) of bromeliads and Tillandsias in particular. This new variety is growing in masses and clinging tenaciously to the limestone rocks in the most impossible positions that one could imagine. In these colonies of little silver stars the rosettes are one inch in diameter with leaves one half to three-quarters inch long.
  So rarely do these rosettes send forth flowers that even if one searches very closely for a sign of flower or seed pod, it is almost never found.
  When first observing the plant it would be almost certainly thought to be a new species, and only after the plant was brought back to the Bromelario in Orlando was the first flower seen.
  The dark violet tubular flowers, one to three, emerge directly from the axis of the leading heads without any scape and show it to be none other than a variety of T. ionantha.
  The compact mat of rosettes gives the appearance of hundreds of plants growing closely together, but finally upon procuring, at great risk, a few bunches, the true conditions of its growth, we then learned. Here were hundreds of rosettes emanating from a criss-cross mat of elongated, caulescent stems hidden underneath and attached to the rock with stiff thread-like roots. They all appeared to be connected so there was no way of telling actually how many different plants existed. The caulescent growth is continuous and new plant heads and roots emerge from the bases of the old mature leaves to form new leads.
  It is a pleasure to name this new variety of T. ionantha in honor of the Van Hynings who have become such enthusiastic collectors (the hard way) of bromeliads and Tillandsias in particular T. ionantha.
  The compact mat of rosettes gives the appearance of hundreds of plants growing closely together, but finally upon procuring, at great risk, a few bunches, the true conditions of its growth, we then learned. Here were hundreds of rosettes emanating from a criss-cross mat of elongated, caulescent stems hidden underneath and attached to the rock with stiff thread-like roots. They all appeared to be connected so there was no way of telling actually how many different plants existed. The caulescent growth is continuous and new plant heads and roots emerge from the bases of the old mature leaves to form new leads.
  It is a pleasure to name this new variety of T. ionantha in honor of the Van Hynings who have become such enthusiastic collectors (the hard way) of bromeliads and Tillandsias in particular. —See Smith & Downs 1977