Additional Information about Vriesea hasei R. Ehlers from Venezuela
by Francisco Oliva-Esteve and Bruno Manara in J Brom Soc 49: 113-5. 1999
In 1975, while working on the preparation of the Flora del Avila (Mount Avila, north of Caracas and a National Park, belongs to the central section of the Cordillera de la Costa, or Coastal Range in northern Venezuela), the second author collected a bromeliad with an ascending simple inflorescence. The inflorescence bore brown-salmon bracts and dark purple flowers. Its taxonomical status was unclear and the plant perhaps had not been previously described. The late Dr. Julian Steyermark submitted that specimen (Manara s.n., VEN 133269) to Dr. Lyman B. Smith, and his determination was that the specimen sent for study was just a form of Vriesea incurva. For this reason, that plant, illustrated in the Flora del Avila, 1978, (plate 71, C), was adscribed to V incurva, as well as the typical form (plate 69, A). However, it is worth remarking that in the typical V incurva the inflorescence, sometimes simple, but mostly branched, is pendant. In addition, Dr. L.B. Smith, neither in his classical Flora Neotropica treatment on bromeliads, nor in his study of the Venezuelan bromeliads, mentions any variety of V incurva with an ascending or erect inflorescence.
Twenty years later, May 4, 1996, these authors visited the Parque Nacional Yacambu, an area located in the last eastern slopes of the Venezuelan Andes, in the state of Lara in central-western Venezuela. There the same bromeliad was found at 1600 m above sea level, and another botanical sample (Oliva-Esteve & Manara 281) was prepared. The plant was frequent enough on tree branches, together with Tillandsia myriantha, from which, when in a vegetative state, it was not easily distinguishable.
In the Herbario Nacional de Venezuela (VEN) there are two other ancient collections of the same plant, i.e.: Steyermark 92.003, collected Nov. 15-19, 1963, in the northern forested slopes of Pico Naiguata in the Avila range system, at 1500-1635 m above sea level; and Steyermark & Rabe 95.997, collected near "Portachuelo", 2 mile below the junction of El Junquito-Colonia Tovar road, July 31, 1966, at 1700 m above sea level. Both specimens had already been identified by L.B. Smith as Tillandsia (Vriesea) incurva.
The above quotations are made on account of two reports and the description of this as a "new species" from Venezuela (F.J. Hase, "Neue Vriesea aus Venezuela"; Jurgen Brinckmann, "Vriesea hasei spec. nov. R. Ehlers -eine neue Vriesea aus Venezuela [eine Anmerkungen]"; and Renate Ehlers, "Vriesea hasei Ehlers sp. nov.", in: Die Bromelie 2-1998-54).
In these articles, the type locality given for Vriesea hasei is "near Biscucuy", 2200 m above sea level, in the Venezuelan Andes, where it was collected by FJ Hase, Jan 17, 1997, no.7.4. Another locality, "along the road Colonia Tovar-El Junquito, 2000 m", is reported by Jurgen Brinckmann, February-March 1994.
Nothing is surprising in this distribution, since this bromeliad was already known from the Colonia Tovar area, which is located in the Cordillera de la Costa close to the Avila range, and Biscucuy is a town in the Andes, not far from Yacambu National Park. Therefore, Vriesea hasei Ehlers is a plant whose known distribution includes both the Andes and the Cordillera de la Costa, Venezuela, in forested areas at 1500-2200 m above sea level.
We agree that this taxon, clearly distinct from other related species, and particularly from V. incurva, with which it was mistaken by L B. Smith, deserves a name of its own. However, as this article relates, Venezuelan bromeliad collectors and researchers had already been acquainted with the plant for a long time, but it was not described earlier as a new species due to the great authority of Dr. L.B. Smith, who certainly never saw that plant alive in the field. —SeeDie Bromelie
