Also plants from a number of other collections differ so distinctively from the type for Tillandsia atroviridipetala Matuda, that they should be described as a variety.
In 1990, Gunther Noller brought me a plant that he had collected in Jalisco near Mazamitla. It looked like a large form of Tillandsia atroviridipetala, but showed a clearly extended peduncle. On various trips, I had several opportunities to study, photograph and collect these plants myself.
Also at many other locations, above all in the State of Jalisco, we could see these plants. On a trip with Lydia and Gerhard Kohres we found thousands of specimens of this tillandsia in the large wooded area between Tecotlan and Quila on pine trees in a relatively moist mountain forest. Later, with Jurgen and Uli Lautner, Manfred Kretz and Wolfgang Schindhelm, we discovered many locations of this especially pretty plant.
Cultivation The cultivation of T. atroviridipetala var. longepedunculata is without any difficulty, but over the years the silvery stars get even bigger than those in nature.
Variability Another collection, EM040503, deserves to be mentioned. In Oaxaca, on the route from Mitla towards Ayutla, we could not believe our eyes. We found at a height of 1500 m on flat rocks, overgrown with trees and bushes, a Tillandsia, that at first glance looked like Tillandsia plumosa: a silvery star with narrow, grey scaled leaves, up to 9cm long. The biggest plants had a diameter of at least 18 cm. However the leaves were not plumose (feathery) but with appressed scales as with Tillandsia atroviridipetala, and also the inflorescence was sessile, without a peduncle. I immediately studied the exact floral characteristics in situ - they matched Tillandsia atroviridipetala! —SeeEhlers 2009ap. 49
