Tillandsia calothyrsus Mez

Literature references:

BSA (Web) Claus 2017: 38 FCBS (Web) Gardner 1982: 132 Gomez et al. 2018: 48 J. Bromeliad Soc.: 42:57h Labuda Till.-cal.: 1995 McVaugh 1989=274: 47 Mendoza 2005: 62 Phillips 2020: 118 Roguenant 2001: 251 Smith & Downs 1977: 935,936: 935*

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Comments:

• Large (to one meter), colorful plants with red primary bracts, yellow floral bracts and lavender flowers. It is distinguished by Smith and Downs (1977) as having digitately divided lower branches of four to seven spikes, although in natural populations some lower branches are simple, and in branched specimens, spacing between branches varies. Tillandsia calothyrsus and T. rettigiana are separated in Smith and Downs' (1977) key by leaf-sheaths brown beneath in the latter and concolorous with the blade in the former. He also finds the floral bracts of T. rettigiana exceeding the sepals, versus equal or shorter in T. calothyrsus. These distinctions tend to vary within or between populations. Examination of flowering material from Oaxaca and Jalisco, Mexico, does not reveal other distinctions. —See Gardner 1982 p. 132