Billbergia maxima C.Chev.

Literature references:

Smith & Downs 1979: 2024

Comments:

• Billbergia alfonsi-joannis versus Billbergia maxima by Derek Butcher 2004
  
  I enjoy reading old records and chanced to read an article by Charles Chevalier in the Bromeliad Society Bulletin 1954 pages 39 to 40 on Billbergia maxima and its hybrids. The more that I read the more I thought of the plant we grow as Billbergia alfonsi-joannis. I was all the more intrigued by finding Billbergia maxima being treated as a POSSIBLE synonym of Billbergia cylindrostachya in Smith & Downs page 2024. I say, possible, because there is a question mark! So I decided to investigate further. When I eventually got someone at the Liege Botanic Garden to answer my request I was disappointed to find that the Bulletin referred to, was not held in Liege. But I was given a contact in the National Botanic Garden of Belgium and they were prepared to send me a photocopy. This arrived a few days ago and I have been busy remembering my schoolboy French lessons in translating. When it dawns on you that a literal translation gives ‘ear’ but means ‘spike’, things fall into place.
  I am now sure that the plant we grow as Billbergia alfonsi-joannis fits much better to the description of Billbergia maxima! Certainly there is a closer link between Billbergia maxima and Billbergia alfonsi-joannis than Billbergia cylindrostachya. Perhaps some academic taxonomist will look at the proper standing of Billbergia maxima and may even treat Billbergia alfonsi-joannis (described some 21 years later) as a synonym but in the meantime perhaps you might like to compare your plant with the two descriptions given below.
  Even if your plant has Billbergia magnifica on the label I suggest you look carefully at the descriptions given. Dare I say that I have never come across a true Billbergia magnifica in Australia. What I would be looking for is fairly large floral bracts for the first few flowers in the inflorescence. This is clearly seen in the photograph as the frontispiece for the Journal Brom Soc 1991 number 3. (Butcher's comments)
• Billbergia alfonsi-joannis versus Billbergia maxima by Derek Butcher 2004
  I enjoy reading old records and chanced to read an article by Charles Chevalier in the Bromeliad Society Bulletin 1954 pages 39 to 40 on Billbergia maxima and its hybrids. The more that I read the more I thought of the plant we grow as Billbergia alfonsi-joannis. I was all the more intrigued by finding Billbergia maxima being treated as a POSSIBLE synonym of Billbergia cylindrostachya in Smith & Downs page 2024. I say, possible, because there is a question mark! So I decided to investigate further. When I eventually got someone at the Liege Botanic Garden to answer my request I was disappointed to find that the Bulletin referred to, was not held in Liege. But I was given a contact in the National Botanic Garden of Belgium and they were prepared to send me a photocopy. This arrived a few days ago and I have been busy remembering my schoolboy French lessons in translating. When it dawns on you that a literal translation gives ‘ear’ but means ‘spike’, things fall into place.
  I am now sure that the plant we grow as Billbergia alfonsi-joannis fits much better to the description of Billbergia maxima! Certainly there is a closer link between Billbergia maxima and Billbergia alfonsi-joannis than Billbergia cylindrostachya. Perhaps some academic taxonomist will look at the proper standing of Billbergia maxima and may even treat Billbergia alfonsi-joannis (described some 21 years later) as a synonym but in the meantime perhaps you might like to compare your plant with the two descriptions given below.
  Even if your plant has Billbergia magnifica on the label I suggest you look carefully at the descriptions given. Dare I say that I have never come across a true Billbergia magnifica in Australia. What I would be looking for is fairly large floral bracts for the first few flowers in the inflorescence. This is clearly seen in the photograph as the frontispiece for the Journal Brom Soc 1991 number 3.
  
  Billbergia maxima Ch. Chevalier, Bull. Soc. Nat. D'Hort. France ( ser. 5, vol. 4: 209. 1931)
  translated by Butcher
  Plant strong species, vigorous, with big leaves, few (about 8), nearly equal length, forming a long tube, a little bulbose at the base, 75 cm. high, on average 8-9 cm.wide;
  Leaves 80 cm to 1m.long, 8 cm wide, nearly all their length, very lightly channelled, for the most part, erect, the outside only a little shorter, spreading horizontally in their upper portion; very short acuminate, uniformly dull green blade, of a very firm texture, thick, tough and sharp thorns on the edges, black, 15-18 mm.apart;
  Scape cylindric, covered with a thick white down, emerging from the leaf tube and bending well early under the weight of the inflorescence.,
  Inflorescence base decorated with beautiful big bracts, oval - lanceolate, rounded, more or less spreading, 15-18 cm. long, 50-55 mm. wide, of a beautiful intense pink, numbering 8 to 10, on the hanging part of the scape, spaced at a few centimeters and stopping at the start of the flowers above which they form a shelter of the most brilliant appearance;
  Flowers, numbering 25 and more, forming a lax spike, 20-25cm. long, whose axis is covered with a strong fluffy, velvety white pubescence, remote of their support, more or less spaced out, very long (10-12cm.) and sessile with the axil of the tomentose bract hardly visible;
  Ovary angular, 15mm. long, 7 mm. thick, obscurely trigonous, covered with an abundant white down, marked with very obvious black ridges;
  Calyx tubular at the base, dividing rapidly into three erect lobes, oval, exceeding the ovary by 8-10 mm., attached against the corolla and covered with a grayish white down, tints purple and of brown on the sides and to the top.
  Petals inserted in the tube of the calyx, with two small scales at their base, ribbon like, 9-10 cm.long, 5-6 mm.wide, extended and convoluted before anthesis, greenish at the base, discolored in the middle and purple bluish at the top, at the time of anthesis rolling up on themselves, like a watch-spring to contact the sepals and reveal the stamens and the pistil;
  Stamens inserted above the ovary, has long, straight, purple filaments, terminating with an anther 27-30 mm.long;
  Style straight, thick, color purple towards the tip, like the three petaloid stigma lobes and shaped in a spiral.
  Type Billbergia species maxima ,prov. of Barbacena, Leg. Engineer Renault O. Lamarche 1879 (LG) ?
  Type locality Barbacena is a town in Brazil, situated 225km north of Rio de Janeiro, in the southern part of the State of Minas-Gerais, under 21°S.
  
  Notes
  Billbergia maxima Ch. Chevalier.
  We cultivate in the Botanical Garden of Liege, under the name of Billbergia species maxima barbacena, an extremely interesting Bromeliad, not only for its vigor but for the beauty of its inflorescence.
  For a long time, this species had us intrigued, because the name under which we cultivated it, don't appear in any monograph, not even in that of Mez (1931), the latest. A recent flowering awakened our attention and we undertook some research about its origin.
  We first consulted the herbarium of Bromeliacees at the Institute of Botany. We found there three leaves of a Billbergia, accompanied by an old label carrying information:
  Billbergia species maxima
  prov. of Barbacena
  Engineer Renault
  O. Lamarche 1879
  This lead us to believe that the plant has been found by engineer Renault, in the province of Barbacena, and would have been sent in 1879, to O. Lamarche, of Liege, in his time an enthusiastic lover of plants and especially of Bromeliaceae.
  Under this label, we found written in the hand of C. Mez, who examined the herbarium specimen in March 1893, the following name: Billbergia Tweediana Bak.
  We don't know the B.Tweediana Bak, but the description of it given in Baker (1889) and Mez (1931), in their Monographies, doesn't link at all with the plant that we cultivate under the name of B.species maxima barbacena.
  It is astonishing that the plant, received by O., Lamarche in 1879, did not attract the attention of Professor Éd. Morren, because he doesn't make any mention of it in his Journal: La Belgique Horticole. It is however very possible, that the leading scientist of the Botanical Garden of Liege was waiting for the plant to flower. He was probably happy to put some leaves in the herbarium, with a temporary note signalling its origin. His death, occurring some years later (1885), wouldn't have allowed him to see the plant in flower.
  One can also admit that, when C. Mez visited our garden, in 1893, the plant in question was not in bloom and, as the leaves found in the herbarium have great resemblances with those of B.Tweediana Bak., he would have believed them to be this species. This would explain the annotation by the Berliner.
  We were convinced that the Billbergia labeled in our greenhouses: B.species maxima barbacena, is unknown in the botanical and horticultural literature. It was then necessary to see if our plant had not been described under another name. We have benefitted by its flowering in our undertaking some research and we have come to the conclusion that its description doesn't correspond with any of the species described in the monographs of Baker and Mez. We are therefore in possession of a plant, certainly not new since it was introduced in 1879, but one that has not been described yet and is not probably known outside of our Botanical Garden.
  Baker divides the Billbergia genus in three groups: the first includes the actual Billbergia, including the Jonghea, of Lemaire;. the second the Helicodea Lemaire and the third only consists of B. (Libonia) marmorata Lem., described in L’Illustration Horticole (1885 pl. 48) and which Mez unites in Aechmea (A. marmorata Mez). Mez also divides the Billbergias in three sub-genera:
  1) Helicodea, characterized by a pendant inflorescence, much farinose covering and by petals rolled up to the base;
  2) Jonghea, of which the very farinose, simple inflorescence, is constituted by a dense, pyramidal spike, erect, with twisted petals and porrifolies (leek-like leaves);
  3) Eubillbergia, characterized by a farinous or glabrous, lax inflorescence, panicle or simple, sub-sessile flowers, short or long pedicels, twisted petals and porrifolies (leek-like leaves).
  
  Our plant, one of the biggest of the kind, clearly belongs to the sub-genus Helicodea and, by its general aspect, seems close to B.Porteana Brong., that Morren described in Belgique Horticole (1876). It differs however by its larger size, the leaves have a bigger surface, forming a longer tube, larger, a more sturdy scape, the colour of the petals and their coils up against the sepals, etc., .
  We have preserved the name of B. maxima, that characterizes its large size and its great vigour. On the other hand, as it is under this name that it has been mentioned in two relative publications on hybrids of the Bromeliaceae, we had to maintain it, in order to avoid all possible confusion in the future.
  
  Billbergia alfonsi-joannis Reitz, Anais Herb. Barbosa Rodrigues 4: 31, pl. 9. 1952.
  Description from S&D
  Leaves 6-10 in a slenderly ellipsoid rosette;
  Sheaths broadly ovate, 20 cm long, 14.5 cm wide, densely lepidote on both sides, violet above, entire;
  Blades ligulate, rounded with the apex usually decayed, 9 dm long, 10 cm wide, not constricted at base, dark green, white-banded beneath, very rigid, the lower half channeled, the upper half gently recurved, laxly serrate with stout antrorse spines 4-6 mm long.
  Scape 1 m long, terete, 14 mm in diameter, densely white-farinose; scape-bracts lance-ovate, acuminate, ca 25 cm long, 5 cm wide, exceeding the internodes, all but the lowest entire, rose-red, white-lanate.
  Inflorescence pendulous, simple, cylindric, 5 dm long, lax, about 50 flowered; rhachis straight, densely white-farinose.
  Floral bracts minute, 3-4 mm long without the 1 mm aculeolus, 6 mm wide, the upper 2 mm long, nearly hidden by the indument;
  Flowers subverticillate, 10-12 cm long, on very short but distinct pedicels.
  Sepals free, broadly oblong, deeply emarginate with a sharp violet apiculus in the sinus, 11 mm long, 6 mm wide, yellow-green, tomentose;
  Petals 10 cm long, 8 mm wide, spirally recurved at anthesis, yellow-green except the violet barbellate apex, bearing 2 fimbriate scales but no calli;
  Stamens 20 mm shorter than the petals; anthers 30 mm long, violet; pollen ellipsoid, sulcate; placentae median to apical; ovules obtuse.
  Type. Reitz 4674 (holotype, HBR), Taio, Ribeirao Grande, Serra do Mirador , Santa Catarina, Brazil, 1 Dec 1951.
  Distribution. Epiphytic in forest, 700 m alt, known from the type locality only: 16 Dec 1950, Reitz 4069 (HBR, US), incomplete and not altogether certain.
  
  I referred my thoughts to Dr Walter Till and he suggested that Billbergia maxima could be linked to the wide-spread Billbergia porteana. Close examination of this taxon – see below- will show no reference to the tipping on both sepals and petals which is a feature of both B. maxima and B. alphonsi-joannis and there also seems difference in ovary shape which was a favorite diagnostic tool of Lyman Smith’s.
  
  Billbergia porteana Brongniart ex Beer, Bromel. 115. 1856.
  Description from S&D
  Plant propagating by very short basal rhizomes.
  Leaves few in a tubular rosette, to 15 dm long, broadly white-banded beneath and sometimes yellow-spotted;
  Sheaths subelliptic, very large, covered with minute appressed brown scales;
  Blades ligulate, acute or broadly rounded by the decay of the apex, to 85 mm wide, laxly serrate with dark nearly straight or antrorsely curved spines 4-5 mm long, sub densely white-lepidote.
  Scape decurved, densely white-farinose;
  Scape-bracts large, lanceolate, acute, entire, papyraceous, bright rose, massed beneath the inflorescence.
  Inflorescence pendulous, simple, lax, to 4 dm long, white-farinose except the petals. Floral bracts minute, usually covered by the indument;
  Flowers sessile, to 8 cm long.
  Sepals broadly ovate, broadly acute and apiculate, equal, 5- 7 mm long;
  Petals spirally recurved at anthesis, linear, wholly green or yellow-green, bearing 2 large fimbriate scales at base;
  Stamens and style purple;
  Ovary ellipsoid, 10-15 mm long, not verrucose, bearing dark glabrous longitudinal lines, the epigynous tube half as long as the ovary and nearly as wide, the placentae central.
  Type. Morel in Paris Hortus s n (holotype, P ? n v), Brazil.
  Distribution. Epiphytic and saxicolous, 800-1300 m alt, Brazil, Paraguay.
• Notes
  Billbergia maxima Ch. Chevalier.
  We cultivate in the Botanical Garden of Liege, under the name of Billbergia species maxima barbacena, an extremely interesting Bromeliad, not only for its vigor but for the beauty of its inflorescence.
  For a long time, this species had us intrigued, because the name under which we cultivated it, don't appear in any monograph, not even in that of Mez (1931), the latest. A recent flowering awakened our attention and we undertook some research about its origin.
  We first consulted the herbarium of Bromeliacees at the Institute of Botany. We found there three leaves of a Billbergia, accompanied by an old label carrying information:
  Billbergia species maxima
  prov. of Barbacena
  Engineer Renault
  O. Lamarche 1879
  This lead us to believe that the plant has been found by engineer Renault, in the province of Barbacena, and would have been sent in 1879, to O. Lamarche, of Liege, in his time an enthusiastic lover of plants and especially of Bromeliaceae.
  Under this label, we found written in the hand of C. Mez, who examined the herbarium specimen in March 1893, the following name: Billbergia Tweediana Bak.
  We don't know the B.Tweediana Bak, but the description of it given in Baker (1889) and Mez (1931), in their Monographies, doesn't link at all with the plant that we cultivate under the name of B.species maxima barbacena.
  It is astonishing that the plant, received by O., Lamarche in 1879, did not attract the attention of Professor Éd. Morren, because he doesn't make any mention of it in his Journal: La Belgique Horticole. It is however very possible, that the leading scientist of the Botanical Garden of Liege was waiting for the plant to flower. He wasprobably happy to put some leaves in the herbarium, with a temporary note signalling its origin. His death, occurring some years later (1885), wouldn't have allowed him to see the plant in flower.
  One can also admit that, when C. Mez visited our garden, in 1893, the plant in question was not in bloom and, as the leaves found in the herbarium have great resemblances with those of B.Tweediana Bak., he would have believed them to be this species. This would explain the annotation by the Berliner.
  We were convinced that the Billbergia labeled in our greenhouses: B.species maxima barbacena, is unknown in the botanical and horticultural literature. It was then necessary to see if our plant had not been described under another name. We have benefitted by its flowering in our undertaking some research and we have come to the conclusion that its description doesn't correspond with any of the species described in the monographs of Baker and Mez. We are therefore in possession of a plant, certainly not new since it was introduced in 1879, but one that has not been described yet and is not probably known outside of our Botanical Garden.
  Baker divides the Billbergia genus in three groups: the first includes the actual Billbergia, including the Jonghea, of Lemaire;. the second the Helicodea Lemaire and the third only consists of B. (Libonia) marmorata Lem., described in L’Illustration Horticole (1885 pl. 48) and which Mez unites in Aechmea (A. marmorata Mez). Mez also divides the Billbergias in three sub-genera:
  1) Helicodea, characterized by a pendant inflorescence, much farinose covering and by petals rolled up to the base;
  2) Jonghea, of which the very farinose, simple inflorescence, is constituted by a dense, pyramidal spike, erect, with twisted petals and porrifolies;
  3) Eubillbergia, characterized by a farinous or glabrous, lax inflorescence, panicle or simple, sub-sessile flowers, short or long pedicels, twisted petals and porrifolies.
  
  Our plant, one of the biggest of the kind, clearly belongs to the sub-genus Helicodea and, by its general aspect, seems close to B.Porteana Brong., that Morren described in Belgique Horticole (1876). It differs however by its larger size, the leaves have a bigger surface, forming a longer tube, larger, a more sturdy scape, the colour of the petals and their coils up against the sepals, etc., .
  We have preserved the name of B. maxima, that characterizes its large size and its great vigour. On the other hand, as it is under this name that it has been mentioned in two relative publications on hybrids of the Bromeliaceae, we had to maintain it, in order to avoid all possible confusion in the future.
  Type locality Barbacena is a town in Brazil, situated 225km north of Rio de Janeiro, in the southern part of the State of Minas-Gerais, under 21°S. —See Bull. Soc. Bot. France