This species is of great interest, since the pollen is abortive and presumably sterile. Dr. Lyman B. Smith, who has examined the type material, believes that the plant is of hybrid origin. However, it was originally collected from a natural habitat within a cloud forest on the north side of Cerro Naiguata in 1965 by the author, and additional plants were collected in 1976 by Professor Bruno Manara from the same locality at 1000 m elevation. Since no evidence exists for the occurrence of any other species of Billbergia on the north side of Cerro Naiguata, and as this side harbours a number of endemic species such as Bulbophyllum manarae, Croizatia naiguatensis, Rinorea oraria, Henriettella manarae, Lacmellea costanensis, and several others, the bromeliad described above is here considered of meritorious specific status.
Dr. Mary Kalin Arroyo, who has examined the pollen of this plant, states (personal communication and unpublished data) that the sterile pollen may be explained otherwise then by hybridity. One possibility is that the plant is apomictic with a selection for pollen sterility. This would be verified as such if the pollen sterile flowers produced seed in the greenhouse or under cultivation. She has observed a similar case in an apomictic species of Miconia and possibly also in Vismia baccifera (unpublished data) from cloud forest habitats in the Cordillera de la Costa at an elevation of about 2000 m. Another possibility for pollen sterility is that the meiotic process has become abnormal at the warmer lower altitudes in which the plant is grown, rendering sterile the pollen of an otherwise normal hermaphroditic species.; —SeeLasser & Maguire 1950
