Aechmea nallyi L.B.Sm.
Literature references:
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Comments:
- From Brom Soc Bull 13:124. 1963
A LETTER FROM JULIAN NALLY is always an event with me as the following excerpt will show:
"I'm about to whip out the inflorescence and mail it to you for I don't think that any seed materialized. It flowered about the same time as my gall bladder and the latter took precedence so the bloom was never pollinated. One thing I will say proudly for my namesake: the bracts hold color longer than most Aechmeas, particularly those that are of any size: twice as long as Aechmea chantinii, for example. I hope, in a year or two that I can bloom a better plant so that you can have a fairer representation of the living plant for your records. As I think I wrote, I have a feeling that a well-grown specimen is a truly large affair, perhaps with a spread of two and a half feet and equal height. Whether the other plants I have my eye on are the same thing, time will tell."
While I am waiting the "year or two" for a nobler specimen, I will take this opportunity to commemorate one of our members who has contributed much to our Society without most of us being aware of it. The new species is perhaps appropriate because its unusual character is not immediately apparent without close inspection. Offhand, it looks much like Aechmea servitensis, although without the long-based divided lower spikes of that species. However, examination of the spike with a hand lens shows not the usual flat scales but cylindrical crisped hair-like growths such as are found in the Bromeliaceae only in a few other species of Aechmea such as Ae. sprucei and Ae. matudae, and quite different from the fine stellate scales of Puya and Pitcairnia. —See Smith & Downs 1979
