Imported plant shipments sometimes contain surprises and there were several in the one received in 1978. I identified two of the mystery plants in 1979, but had to wait until January 1983 for the third to bloom.
The plant was unknown to me, but I was able to determine that it was an Aechmea. In November 1985, I sent a blooming specimen to Harry Luther at the Bromeliad Identification Center. He identified the plant as: "BIC 263 Aechmea weilbachii Dietr. var. pendula Pereira & Moutinho." Mr. Luther added: "I believed this var. pendula to be the same as var. weilbachii, as the authors distinguished it only by having a pendant scape. Variety weilbachii also may have a pendant scape. I see now that var. pendula also has a much more laxly arranged flowers on a very geniculate rachis ... it has caused me to re-evaluate a taxon that I first believed to be superfluous."
No one with whom I have spoken was aware that this plant was in cultivation. The plant has about 25 leaves and is about 65 cm high. When in bloom, it measures about 1 m from the top of the plant to the bottom of the inflorescence. The elliptical leaf sheaths (and therefore the base of the plant) are relatively large: 6.5 cm wide by 19 cm. The leaf blades are lanceolate, 3.5 cm wide by 36 cm and glabrous, darkish green above and below. The sheaths are spined and the blades are usually only slightly, or not at all, spined. Offsets appear on short (8-10 cm) stolons. I believe that these offsets should be left on to encourage blooming (as is the case with many Dyckias).
The scape is 65 to 85 cm long and brilliant coral in color, having scape bracts longer than the internodes. The primary bracts (3-4 cm wide by 2 cm) are beige before anthesis, turning coral after. The ovaries (11 mm) are fuchsia, sepals (6mm) light blue gray, and petals (11 mm) lighter blue gray, turning black after anthesis. The entire inflorescence retains good color for several months.
We have grown the plant very successfully in a cool greenhouse (13 degrees Centigrade night temperature in winter). It needs some shade in summer even at our latitude of 44.5 degrees north. It likes a loose potting mix, as we might well expect, and I grow them in plain shredded cedar bark mulch, fertilizing about every three months with a time release 14-14-14 fertilizer. —SeeBrown 1987p. 37(3): 125
