Guzmania recurvobracteata Rauh

Taxonomic Change:

• Has been placed in synonymy to Guzmania fusispica —See Luther 1985b p. 258
• Has been placed in synonymy to Guzmania osyana —See Gouda 2011d p. 102-103

Comments:

• The same species was found under the Collection number Rauh 38 069 near Santo Domingo (1200 m), west from Quito, where it grows with Guzmania melinonis var. quitensis Rauh( Bromelienstudien, 5. Mitt., S. 45ff., 1976). The Bromeliad specialist MR. PRINSLER has also collected it near Tanapi in central-Ecuador.
  Guzmania recurvo-bracteata is in the complex found in French Guiana to Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia in mountain and rain forests (from 400 to 1600 m) with the widely dispersed G. melinonis Regel ( Rauh, Bromelienstudien, 5. Mitt. and Trop. and Subtrop. Pflanzenwelt, 16, 1976, fig. 24 and 25, S. 248-249) from which it is difficult to distinguish vegetatively. Flowering clearly shows differences.
  With G. melinonis the inflorescence is clearly ± bent over, ellipsoid to cylindrical; the floral bracts are erect, adjacent to the axis, shiny cinnabar red and green tipped. They have yellow (var. melinonis) or white (var. quitensis Rauh) flowers exceeding the floral bracts; with G. recurvo-bracteata the inflorescence is erect and thick-ellipsoid and floral bracts pale carmine red with white at the base with the upper third strongly bent outwards and folded in a boat shape. Only the basal floral bracts are are short and green tipped, the upper ones are blunt. The yellow flowers are much shorter than the floral bracts and well covered by these. The inflorescence of G. recurvo-bracteata is more decorative than that from G. melinonis which has persisted in culture for so long.
  There seems to be a link (or hybrid) between G. melinonis and G. recurvo-bracteata. In the area of Santo Domingo (1200 m), where the two varieties of G. melinonis, var. melinonis and var. quitenses occur, Rauh 38 069 was collected and already have flowered in the Heidelberg botanical garden several times. They have short, ellipsoid or long cylindrical spikes, 8-15 cm long, with spirally arranged (4-6-rows) floral bracts. They are variable, either wide-oval acuminate or lanceolate-oval acuminate. They are more or less erect and adjacent to the axis; only the intensively red coloured tips of the otherwise white bent over floral bracts can be seen easily. The yellow flower is like G. recurvo-bracteata fully covered by the floral bracts. Regrettably the black and white photo does not show the differences in colour of the floral bracts.
  Whether it is a hybrid between G. melinonis and G. recurvobracteata, or a new species depends on a wider collection from the area. —See Rauh 1973-1991