Cryptanthus x cochleatus E.Morren ex Baker
Status: nom.inval. (not accepted by author, icn article 36.1)
Publ: Handb. Bromel. 17 (1889)
Type: Habitat. Brazil. Described from Prof. Morren's drawing, made in Aug., 1885.
Description: click here.
Taxonomic Change:
- treated as a hybrid Cryptanthus acaulis x zonatus
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 zonatus). There was no reference quoted to cover this change of mind so parentage can only have been a guess. Interestingly he included C. testaceus Morren ex Baker as a synonym. C. testaceus is described in Baker 1889 - C.testaceus E. Morren (MD) is a form of C. undulatus Otto & Dietr. with brown ovate-lanceolate leaves 4 – 5 in. long, nearly 2 in. broad low down. We now know C. undulatus Otto & Dietr. as a synonym of C. acaulis var acaulis!
In my burrowing into old documents via digital copies I have found some of Dutrie’s comments to be based on hearsay rather than historical reference and he would not have seen Morren’s painting in Kew.
Notes on the older Cryptanthus Cultivars by Larry Giroux in CSJ 19(3): 76-9. 2004
Cryptanthus ‘Cochleatus’: This is another "species - want - a - be" described by Morren in 1889. Ivon Ramirez Morillo denotes this plant as a doubtful taxa in her 1996 thesis (see above reference)
"The drawing represents a plant with brown leaves and transversal wavy bands It does not seem to be any of the species in Section Zonatae, but it is very similar to several of the hybrids that include C. zonatus as a parent. Since the locality data and more details of the floral parts is unknown, the species remains obscure."
Louis Dutrie clarified the origins of this obscure cultivar in his writings for the Bulletin horticole (Liege, Belgium, 1946-48). This hybrid was obtained by pollenizing C. acaulis with C. zonatus. The resultant plant had reddish brown leaves with transverse, scurfy gray bands and heavily white scurfed under sides on the leaves.
I have never seen this plant in person or in a photograph. Due to its overall similarity to C. zonatus, one of its parents, it has most likely disappeared into oblivion or has assumed an alias, possibly "zonatus". —See Mez 1935 p. 20
