During the month of June, 1996, PROBONA Foundation financed an expedition to the Guacamayos Cordillera in the Napo province to explore for new species of bromeliads.
The study of Bromeliaceae from Guacamayos was made possible thanks to Javier Izko, Director of the PROBONA Foundation. He proposed the idea of searching this beautiful area for new ornamental species to establish a small business in order to grow and subsequently sell plants in the cities of Quito and Guayaquil. This would provide an incentive to save the forest in the Guacamayos region as the native people there would then have economic resources from the existing forest to rely on instead of cutting the primary forest to obtain wood or convert it to pasture land. This idea is already producing positive results, and we now we look forward to achieving them in other areas of Ecuador, plans for which are already in our work schedule.
This new Guzmania was collected in the 7th day of the expedition. After a long walking trip from Tena, we arrived at a deep valley surrounded by high mountains. At this beautiful but almost inaccessible site at 1620 m., we found a small paradise for bromeliad lovers. Thousands of bromeliads were on the ground and high in the branches of the 40 m trees.
During this expedition we collected a total of 80 species belonging to the following genera: Aechmea, Catopsis, Guzmania, Mezobromelia, Pepinia, Pitcairnia, Racinaea, Ronnbergia, Tillandsia and Vriesea. Some of these species were not known to science and are now under study. One of them is proposed here as a new species. —SeeManzanares & Till 2000p. 50(1): 17-19
