Cryptanthus makoyanus Morren ex Baker
Taxonomic Change:
- Treated as a hybrid Cryptanthus acaulis x bivittatus —See Mez 1935 p. 20
Literature references:
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Comments:
- Now treated as a hybrid
Butcher, June 2011
Note there is no hint of this being a hybrid and in those days it was accepted that plants in captivity could be named even though provenance was unknown.
It was not until Mez in 1935 that we see he treated this as a hybrid with parents of (acaulis x bivittatus). There was no reference quoted to cover this change of mind so parentage can only have been a guess.
It is a pity we cannot see the Icon at Kew but these paintings are zealously guarded. We can only follow Baker’s description.
Has this hybrid survived in cultivation for 120 years? I doubt it! But then it seems strange that nobody has reported crossing these species either or did they do so and called them ‘Makoyanus’ without checking that there was not any difference. Perhaps there is a challenge to hybridists to repeat this crossing but first find the species!
Notes on the older Cryptanthus Cultivars by Larry Giroux in CSJ 19(3): 76-9. 2004
Cryptanthus ‘Makoyanus’: A cultivar of acaulis x bivittatus. A true intermediate of the parents, this plant has dark green leaves with double lighter green stripes. This was made by Jacob Makoy before 1889. We know that the plant was around in1889 since Morren tried to describe this cryptanthus as a new species. The following is an excerpt from the thesis: Systematics. Phylogeny. and Chromosome Number Evolution of Cryptanthus (Bromeliaceae), by Ivon Mercedes Ramirez Morillo, June 1996.
"Cryptanthus makoyanus E. Morren in Baker, Fam. Bromel. 16 1889. Type: Morren Icon (K!).
The drawing represents a plant with two longitudinal pale stripes, similar to C. bivittatus. The large number of hybrids involving C. bivittatus and the lack of locality data, make this concept hard to interpret."