THE BROMELIAD SOCIETY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA, INC.

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Mar/Apl 2005 :Bromeliad Gazette. Vol:29. Number:02

January Meeting from the Secretary’s desk

No worries this year regarding temperature. BUT there were three times as many plants as there were people present! This is said somewhat tongue-in-cheek because we would not wish we had three times as many people as plants. It is just disappointing when you get good weather and a poor roll-up.
I won’t be talking about each plant individually – that would be boring. Just snippets as is my wont!
Adam Bodzioch spoke on the ‘other’ plants brought in. A fine specimen of Aechmea ‘Black Panther’ from George Rudolph caught the eye but only because of its almost black leaves – the inflorescence being a weak yellow thing! But then that is what it is supposed to look like! You can’t win them all.
On to a Aechmea gamosepala with albomarginate leaves from Maureen Hick. There are already 2 cultivar names for variegated A. gamosepala – namely, ‘Lucky Stripes’ and ‘Mardi Gras’. It is said there are differences but anyone can check to see if they see significant differences by checking the Bromeliad Cultivar register on line. The Bromeliad family creates more variegated plants than any other plant family and the actual variegations also vary from offset to offset. Are the plants ‘wandering’ around called A. gamosepala ‘Variegated’ really ‘Lucky Stripes’ or ‘Mardi Gras’ that have lost their label or did they spontaneously mutate to variegate? Should they be called either of the cultivar names or just left as A. gamosepala ‘Variegated’ etc. I prefer the variation on the species name because of the doubt of its origin but please - no Latin like variegata because the plant has not been described in Latin.
Now to another phenomenon with variegation. We saw an Aechmea fasciata ‘Albo-marginate’. There are no Cultivar names for this!!! The leaves seem to have decided that variegation is not enough so the whole leaf takes on a yellow colour. This is not strange when we think of Billbergia ‘Gloria’ – a name given for a Billbergia pyramidalis ‘Variegated’ that also forgot it was supposed to be variegated and turned yellow! I have a feeling that these yellow leaves will not occur in the offsets but no doubt Joan Williams will keep an eye open to see if I am wrong!
Talking of cultivars reminds me of the Neoregelia ‘Oh No’ x ‘Zebra’ F2 brought in. While every human has the right to grow plants from seed I believe there is an equal responsibility to identify these plants when they reach adulthood. If it is worth growing then it is worth giving a proper cultivar name. In this case there would have been an original crossing of ‘Oh No’ with ‘Zebra’ this would have given many different sorts of seedlings. None were considered worthy to be given names but one was chosen to be the seed parent of another generation (the F2 designation). In effect this name on the label is useless for identification purposes. My mate Oscar in Rio de Janeiro has the right approach to this problem. He maintains the best hybridists are humming birds but because his humming birds do not have individual names he does not know the hybridist. If he gets ONE outstanding plant he names this clone, photographs it, registers it and sells the offsets under this name.
Adam was commenting to Auntie Margaret about why her Billbergia ‘Domingos Martins’ were so small but here we saw that Adam had the same complaint. To my mind they look better at this size but it is a phenomenon hard to explain. We know that in the wild a plant only offsets because a second flowering means a greater chance of seed dispersal. There an offset would be smaller because the sooner it flowers the better. Under horticulture it is known that if you take off an offset at the wrong time of the year the plant will flower earlier. What is the wrong time of the year? I don’t know!!! We also take off offsets when they are large. If we took them off small they would take longer to grow to flowering size! You did not realise how many decisions you have to make, did you?!
And so to the tillandsias, of which there is always a load. First we had Tillandsia aurea which did not have quite yellow petals and which had come from Maurie Kellett having been grown from seed. This now goes under the title of Tillandsia ‘Creamy’.
Tillandsia capitata with an orange head was coming into flower and had come from Neville Ryan in Queensland. Neville had got the seed from Renate Ehlers and had done a good job in growing on the seed but this species is very wide spread in Mexico and neighbouring countries. It would have been better if Neville had not lost the collection number because we would have known its provenance.
In October 1995 there appeared a photograph of a Vriesea sagasteguii in the BSI Journal and I just had to have one. Luckily, the following year Len Colgan and I were in the USA for their Convention and happened to call on Pam Koide. I think Len was trying to get as many sorts of the ubiquitous T. fasciculata but I was after something unique! Anyway, I got this Vriesea sagasteguii which is one of those vrieseas that looks like a Tillandsia and we know is temperamental regarding giving offsets. Undaunted I made the purchase and over 8 years later I was rewarded with a flower! This was why I just had to bring it to the meeting. It was just as spectacular as the photograph and, of course, has had its own photo taken many times. If you find Vriesea sagasteguii hard to pronounce then try Tillandsia peruviana because this is the name scheduled for its use once the dust has settled as to whether it is a Vriesea or a Tillandsia. Remember that there is already a Tillandsia sagasteguii which I understand has survived its gassing when Mick Romanowski brought it back from his own recent collecting trip to Peru - but that’s another story. You all know that I grow the tillandsias and Margaret grows vrieseas and it is in my part of the garden!
Len Colgan was proud of his KK122 which was in flower. It is a bit of an enigma because nobody knows exactly where Karel Knize found his various collections (we are not sure if Knize knew either!) Anyway, there is a group of Tillandsias from Peru and into Bolivia that have been known about for some 84 years when the red flowering T. macbrideana was found. Since then lots of collections have been made with lots of disagreements. The latest new species from the group was named T. rubia by Len and Renate Ehlers. KK122 is related but that is about all we know about it.
Len was also proud of flowering his T. fasciculata from Cuba even though this could well turn out to be one of the variable T. variabilis which is also widespread in Cuba. I wait with the scalpel at the ready!
Finally for the other display plants was a plant than Len Colgan had got from Brenton Cadd in Melbourne. It must be two years ago that my plant came from the same source and was called Tillandsia concolor. Brenton agreed with my thoughts that it was a hybrid and he could not remember his source. We decided to give it the cultivar name. Tillandsia ‘Conned’. I have been waiting for 2 years so that I could say to Len, “Youse been Conned!”

AND so to the main talk where Bill Treloar had the reins. Well, not for the start because I just had to tell members why they had been told that the meeting would be on Nidularium, Canistropsis and Canistrum whereas I had deliberately left out the Canistrum in the Gazette notices.
The latest view is that Canistrum with its asymmetric sepals is closer to Aechmea that Nidularium. I know – that means you have to take the flower to bits to find out and you are all loth to do this. I love butchering plants – all in the cause of science. Asymmetric, by the way, means roughly a lop-sided shape! What we should have done, is included Edmundoa and Wittrockia in our talk. Luckily I was in the know so I did bring in an Edmundoa. I find that Wittrockia do not like living in Adelaide. Maureen Hick said she grew them but Maureen knows she has to bring the plant to the meeting before I believe her!
Now we have decided that only those with symmetric sepals apply we were ready to start the talk.
First there is Nidularium where the name came into being in 1854. At that time it included all bromeliads that had the flower in a sort of a nest and included what we call Neoregelia these days. Currently we think of Nidularium as having compound flowers with extra heads (or fascicles because they are flat not round) on the side around the main flowering centre. There is another oddity and that is about the flowering habit. I used to spend hours waiting for the flowers to open and convinced myself they must open at night when I wasn’t around. BUT the petals are hooded at the top and only open just enough for a humming bird to stick its bill in! There are some 40 species of which only a few are in Adelaide.
Canistropsis can be described as Nidularium where the petals open wide AND for some reason are harder to grow in Adelaide. There are some 15 species. They don’t like our winters.
Finally Edmundoa which are the hairy nidulariums. Those who did take up the challenge and did look into the inflorescence would have seen the brownish hairs. Some other hirsute gentlemen in the audience could possibly relate to the colour but I am in the clear being almost white!
And so to Bill.
First we had was Edmundoa lindenii var. rosea which Bill, showing his knowledge, said used to be called a Canistrum to which I replied that he had not checked the sepal shape! I love plant name changes only when I know why !
Canistropsis were thin on the ground with the only species being C. burchellii. This is temperamental. You would think with its discolor leaves it would like to be in the deepest of shade and yet with its longish stolons higher up the tree in habitat. All I know is that it got moved to several positions before it found its current home in our back yard. The other Canistropsis currently grown is C. billbergioides. Lyman Smith decided over 25 years ago that there were too many variations in the wild to describe them all. This did not stop Nurserymen giving them quasi-Latin names without description. In 1997 in collaboration with the keen growers in northern NSW and southern Queensland we decided to give them cultivar names based on fruit and backed by photos. So the plant called C. billbergioides var rubrifolia N N in all probability has a proper Cultivar name.
N. fulgens is easily recognised by the scalloped edges to the leaves rather than visible spines and the primary bracts in the centre can come in a range of colours. The one on display was more orangey.
N. ‘Madonna’ is a beauty but large. It started off as seed from Seidel in Brazil imported in the early 1980’s by the Bromeliad Society of Australia and from what I can gather was mainly grown by Ruby Ryde. In any event it was grown for many years as just Nidularium. I first came across it in the early 1990’s when Jarka and Nina Rehak wanted to register a variegated Nidularium as ‘Miranda’ from the suburb where they lived. Apparently things had started happening in 1987 when variegation appeared on one or two leaves. As is her wont with things mysterious and striking, Nina took offsets only from the area where the old leaves were variegated and with successive puppings ‘Miranda’ was produced. The variegations have been stable for many years now, not like many of the variegated neoregelias. The only thing that can be said against it is that it is a large plant which is 1m in diam even in Adelaide! This started me on the search for the plant that had produced the variegate and I did find it and this was eventually called ‘Madonna’. There is no way I can link it to a species even when poring through Leme’s books. But both have great Cultivar names so why go further. It is easily recognisable because the inflorescence starts low down in the leaf cup and the primary bracts are white. The scape elongates and the primary bracts turn pink when the white flowers appear. I bumped into this plant in Cairns at the 1999 Conference and was able to identify it for the owner AND the Brisbaneites were intrigued because they grew the plant too.
N. innocentii was there in its many forms. There have been name changes by Leme but they do answer some of the questions we used to ask in the past especially the var. purpureum. This is now a species in its own right and has red petals. If you have a purpureum from the old days and it has white petals – think innocentii !
N. antoineanum is a favorite because the inflorescence remains for months changing colour until it becomes a dark blue. There have been rumblings that this is wrongly identified although my dissections have not made me change my mind!
We must not forget the N. atalaiaensis which looks more like an Aechmea and where the plant turns a dark orangey colour when flowering is eminent.
And we must not forget ‘Sao Paulo’ which is a name given by DeLeon and described as having darkish red bracts with no spotting mentioned. It was identified as a N. rutilans which is a variable species and where spotting on the primary bracts can vary considerably. Botanically speaking you can get variation in N. rutilans. Cultivar-wise you have ‘Sao Paulo’ with virtually no spots to the very spotted ‘Leprosa’.
Remember it is much easier to identify a plant with no label with the broad range of a species and you can always use the prefix aff. (this stands for affinity) if in doubt THEN it is a cultivar which is less likely to show variation. Remember too that this philosophy apples to Nidularium because the hybridists have, in the main, left this genus alone! This brings me to the many plants called ‘Madame Robert Morobe’ both in Australia and the USA. It originated in Europe in 1940 which is just before things got really heated up with WWII. Would it have survived?! It is said to be a primary cross between innocentii (the purplish leaved form?) and fulgens, and has discolor leaves. Such were the glowing terms given in its description everyone wanted one and what better way to get quick plants than by seed. The problem here is that Madame Robert Morobe’s children would not have looked like her and neither would seed from ‘Madame Robert Morobe’. But alas the name stays on the label even though it is clearly incorrect. If anyone has a ‘Madame Robert Morobe’ that agrees with the description please let me know.
You may recall me asking our resident crossword compiler expert what word described the use of unnecessary words such as the N. ‘Ruby Lee Variegated’ we had on one label. ‘Ruby Lee’ was a name given to a variegated cultivar and as such you would be calling a variegated plant variegated. Anyway our expert was lost for words. On getting home I checked up and the word is ‘tautology’. So now we all know another word!
Finally there were two species of Canistrum brought in but nobody volunteered their plant so I could find out how asymmetrical the sepals were!

February Meeting from the Secretary’s desk

This was our Annual General Meeting and the following officers were voted in
PRESIDENT - Len Colgan
VICE PRESIDENT - Adam Bodzioch
SECRETARY - Derek Butcher
TREASURER - Bill Treloar
COMMITTEE - Margaret Butcher, Len Cork, Maureen Hick, Colin Waterman & David Wecker (New)
AUDITORS - Keith Bradtberg & Adam Bodzioch
ASSISTANT SECRETARY - Margaret Butcher
LIBRARIAN - Bill Treloar / George Rudolph
AFTERNOON TEA CONVENOR - Judith Naylor-Vane (New)
DOOR TICKETS - George Rudolph RAFFLE TICKETS - George Rudolph and other helpers on the day.
TRADING TABLE CONVENORS - Keith Bradtberg & Maureen Hick
HOSTESSES - Carlene Potter/ Eileen Mullins.
POTS & LABELS - Len Cork
NAME TAG MAKER - Colin Waterman
EDITOR - Derek Butcher

Keith Bradtberg is having difficulties in attending all committee meetings and we welcome David into the ranks. Elaine Coleman, our efficient and happy tea lady has had health problems as well as her husband Kevin and felt a younger person may well like to do the job. We hope to still see both these members at future meetings, health permitting. We welcome Judy to the reins!
Cash assets stand at $3,360 which continues our policy of current members reaping the rewards of their efforts.

Sad News from New Zealand
Bea Hanson recently passed away after a long illness. It is sort of the end of an era because Bea held together the NZ Bromeliad growers through the 1980’s & 1990’s in a similar way to what Olwen Ferris did in Australia. Those who came to our Convention in 1987 will have seen Bea and the ‘clutch’ of Kiwis she brought with her!

Len Colgan talked about the ‘other’ plants brought in for display ‘quickly’ because we had some 80 Neoregelia species plants to discuss in the main talk. Again interesting plants were brought in but the one that did catch the eye was a Puya mirabilis. It certainly lived up to its name which means miracle! Bill Treloar had brought in his ‘bonsai’ which was flowering. Len Colgan has the same species in a ‘BIG’ pot flowering too. To my mind this plant fares better planted in the open soil as at the Adelaide Botanic Garden BUT this way it does form a large clump!

AND so to the Derek and Bill Show where we were inundated with species Neoregelia. To think that our Hon Pres. didn’t think there would be enough plants to talk about.
First, as a specialist plant group we should be encouraging the growing of species plants because they won’t be in the wild forever. Natural forests are just disappearing at an alarming rate throughout the World because of human expansion.
Neoregelia species are hard to find AND hard to identify, whereas hybrids are a dime a dozen.
In the 1800’s plants were collected and sent to Europe and those that survived the journey were properly named – albeit somewhat sketchily. But since then habitat has been destroyed and just pockets remain. Just as one example let us think of Rio Janeiro, where many neoregelias came from, is now a city with a population the same as we have in the whole of Australia. Add to this the collections in the 1980’s by the Blehers of Lotus Osiris who sent plants to Weber in Germany for naming and details of where they were collected unknown. We can perhaps realise the problems Elton Leme faces these days when he tries to tackle the problems of identity. But at least he has places to visit to try to find these plants.
As collectors in Australia we have a different problem because we rarely know where plants were found and have to guess if it is an offset of a plant from the wild. In the 1960’s plants got to us from Adda Abendroth who corresponded with the likes of Bill Morris and Olwen Ferris, then there was a period when plants were coming from the young Elton Leme and finally the forays made by Marj McNamara and Ruby Ryde. In between this were plants that were collected in Brazil got to the USA and were distributed by Kent with doubtful identification. But at least there is a possibility of them being species and I love to dissect them to see what I can find out.
Then we have seed raising. Remember that neoregelias hybridise VERY easily. Even with seed sent from Leme to us in the 1990’s we had to be vigilant and check the progeny when they reached adulthood. Seed from the BSI seed bank needed even greater vigilance.
Because of these hybrids it is difficult to identify species. Harry Luther has given up in despair with plants grown in Florida and now only deals with plants collected from the wild in Brazil. If there is a moral here it is to retain as much information as to the origin of your species plant as you can.
We had arranged the plants brought in, in Elton Leme’s order to see if we could see why they may have been placed in this order. We know that Elton is only half way through this task because he had a section called “indetermined” but at least we found we were on a steep learning curve. You all know my way of learning is to ask questions and I was amused at what Elton had to say in his concluding remarks in New Zealand. I quote “I hope that Derek will not make any more questions. Maybe in the next 10 years, when I come here again, I will have a better system to show you the typical group of Neoregelia”.
AND I only asked one question!
We find the group ‘Hylaeaicum’ very difficult to grow in Adelaide and would prefer it to be in a genus on its own which may happen in the distant future. No plants were on display!
Then there was the Longipetalopsis group where we had a bit of confusion as the many varied forms of N. bahiana there are. Nobody could argue about our other representative N. rubrovittata. Many of this group are new discoveries which is why there are not many in Australia.
Nobody would really want to grow N. longisepala even if you had a shadehouse big enough to accommodate one which left us with the main Neoregelia group. This had been split into 14 subsections with one section of species yet to be aligned.


Updated 31/10/07