Cryptanthus lubbersianus Morren ex Baker
Status: nom.inval. (not accepted by author, icn article 36.1)
Publ: Handb. Bromel. 16 (1889)
Type: Habitat. Probably Brazil. Described from Prof. Morren's drawing, made in 1885.
Description: click here.
Taxonomic Change:
- Treated as a hybrid Cryptanthus bivittatus x Beuckeri
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 (bivittatus x Beuckeri). There was no reference quoted to cover this change of mind so parentage can only have been a guess. But he did treat the following as a synonym – C. Regeli Hort. Makoy, ex Regel in Gartenflora XXXIII, 167. 1884
It is a pity we cannot see the Icon at Kew but these paintings are zealously guarded. We can only follow Morren’s description in Baker’s work. In view of what Larry had to say in 2004 it seems that remakes have been done without a critical review being done by the hybridist
Notes on the older Cryptanthus Cultivars by Larry Giroux in CSJ 19(3): 76-9. 2004
Cryptanthus ‘Lubbersianus’ A cultivar of bivittatus X beuckeri. Some clones have ' large narrow leaves in mottled green and cream with pink suffusion in good light. Others have shorter leaves, but both varieties have leaves, which are narrow at the bases and are spoon shaped further out, typical of the C. beuckeri parent. Hybridizer was probably Jacob Makoy around 1884; however, Victoria Padilla states that it was Regel. Ms. Padilla's belief was probably fueled by the fact that there was a second plant in the grex of C. bivittatus X C. beuckeri, which was named Cryptanthus x regeli. To my knowledge, this plant's progeny have survived in cultivation. —See Mez 1935 p. 20
