During an expedition organized by Roberto Burle Marx of Rio de Janeiro in September 1991, plants of a new species of Orthophytum with zebra-striped leaves were collected living. Subsequently these flowered in the Burle Marx and the Gurken collections in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro and in November 1982, at the request of Luis Carlos Gurken, I drew up the following description from examination of many living plants. In December this description was further elaborated at Berkeley from a living flowering specimen hand-carried by me from Brasil. It was then pressed as the holotype. An additional specimen prepared by Gurken in Brasil is being forwarded by me to Smithsonian as an isotype.
A supplementary number on the holotype is P. C. Hutchison 8379. The isotype was pressed in Brasil in 1982 by Luiz Carlos Gurken from his living collection in Yargem Grande near Rio de Janeiro. Plants are also cultivated by Roberto Burle Marx at his sitio, Santo Antonio de Bica, near Barra do Guaratiba just south of Rio de Janeiro. A single specimen is growing at Tropic World, Escondido, California.
This species is a narrow endemic. The population occupies an area no larger than 100 x 100 meters on rocky outcrops associated with Lycopodium, Vellozia, Encholirion, Pseudopilosocereus, a palm, and a nettle-like Euphorbiaceous shrub that stings painfully. The Encholirion likewise appeared to be endemic; the other species were seen elsewhere. Grazing occurs in the area and there is also danger of fire. Consequently this new species could easily be exterminated by indiscriminate collecting or by habitat destruction. Material for collectors should be produced from seed as the plant seldom offsets. The Gurken brothers are attempting to produce seedlings.
The zebra stripes on dark brown-purple leaves set this species apart from all other Orthophytum species. The aspect of the sterile plants is like Cryptanthus zonatus and C. fosterianus, but the color contrasts are stronger and the stripes more clearly defined, and the leaves are ultimately larger.
Color photographs of this striking new species will be published in the Bromeliad Journal. —SeePhytologia
