September/October 2005 :Bromeliad Gazette. Vol:29. Number:05

More on the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.
John Sandham from the Gardens has recently been bringing overseas visitors to the Butcher garden for a bit of a change and a challenge. So we were not surprised when we found out he wanted to bring around Yolande Vasconcellos from the Georgetown Botanic Gardens. He did not say which ‘Georgetown’ !

Then Our Big Len rang up saying he had been to a meeting at the Adelaide Bot. Gardens where Yolande gave a talk on her own botanic garden in Guyana. He was surprised I was one step ahead of him. You see, Guyana is the place where the Victorian Water lily comes from and which I mentioned in the last newsletter. I now knew why Yolande was here and that the expeditionary trip organised by the Adelaide Botanic Garden was still on.

You may have gathered already that I believe that the space in the Adelaide Bot. gardens glasshouses is wasted because all the species there will grow outside under shade in Adelaide. Here was a chance to promote growing Guyana bromeliads there so we could visit and drool over them. Not like we do at present where we would comment “I can grow it better!” We wait and see!

Yolande is just over 5 foot tall and has that Caribbean accent. She is more a zoologist that a botanist but as she points out you have to have a wide knowledge to get a job in Guyana. There are not many specialist jobs around. I spoke to her about her encounter with a Koala at Cleland and a pity she could not actually hug one. I pointed out how strongly they cling. She quietly pointed out that her 2 toed Sloth pet really knew how to cling too! These animals have similar niches in their environment but at least sloths eat fruit as change to their leafy diet! She was disappointed she saw no Koalas on Kangaroo Island in spite of the world wide knowledge that they are in plague proportions. The problem here is that they are in plague proportions in relation to the number of trees that they feed on!

As we walked around the garden I was able to point out what plants were struggling under my conditions and yet would be bursting at the seams when growing naturally in Guyana. After 40 odd years of growing all manner of exotic plants from seed it is not surprising that some have survived and become a talking point for visitors!

Over a cup of tea we were told about the Harpy Eagle with a wingspan of 10 feet, the Anaconda that can devour a sheep, and the threatened golden Frog, but when she talked about the Kaieteur National Park we wished we were 20 years younger!

After having her photograph taken in the front garden so it can be put with the many others in my ‘Plant People’ file, I was able to get her Email address and a promise to possibly help with Bromeliad pictures in the wild in the future.

July Meeting from the Secretary’s desk
The Ecuadorian Pitcairnioideae book by Jose Manzanares is now in the Library. There are many great habitat photographs of plants we will only see in books. It is what I call a ‘dream’ book rather than a ‘wants’ book because the plants are just not available and have very restricted ecological niches. It is interesting to some that your Secretary was involved with some of the prose.

Another piece of interest revolved around a bigeneric named xAndrolaechmea ‘Dean’ where we had a large photograph and floral parts to hand around. (See Androlaechmea Dean.). These were thanks to Lynn Hudson of Cairns and is the closest members will get to such a plant. Not only is it a large spiny beast (with a great inflorescence) but it likes to live in warm wet climes. Lynn had written about ‘her’ plant in the Cairns Newsletter but as always there are always two sides to a tale! I got involved when Lynn sent me photographs and a query as to why it was not in the Bromeliad Cultivar Register. This had me contacting Dean Fairchild who had done this hybrid in 1989 and left the seedlings with Bullis Nursery in Florida, USA. These were grown on by Bullis and interestingly are currently called Aechmea ‘Dean’ on their website. I did get confirmation that the seed came from a female Androlepis skinneri and the pollen from a male Aechmea mariae-reginae.

Dean mentioned apomixis as a possible cause for the seed setting but then pointed out where he saw the influence of the pollen parent!. I hope you are going to ask “What is apomixis?” because I am going to tell you as much as I know!

This word is not strange to me because Bullis used the same term when describing Aechmea ‘Little Harv’ which is why I put ‘alleged apomictic’ in the records. Some plants have the ability of setting seed without sex – the dandelion is one example. The seedlings have the same chromosome count and DNA as mother! If the recent report of a male plant doing the same thing in North Africa is correct, then females don’t have it all their own way and cannot suggest that human males be phased out! Whether the DNA are in the same order I do not know but the resultant plants would be very similar to an offset. Does it happen in Bromeliaceae? I don’t know, but it would be nice to know that the dioecious Bromeliads (separate male and female plants) had this as backup. I can think of nothing more frustrating than waiting for pollen to arrive and you know you do not have a male in your floral bed and therefore can’t use him as a last resort! Alas, nobody has written up on this subject of apomixis for Bromeliads. Great advances are being made in food crops because that is where the money is.

So, due to the actions by an inquisitive grower we now have a Cultivar registered 16 years after its conception.

It was again surprising to see so many flowering plants brought in for display. Let us hope there are some left for the ‘winter brag’ at the August meeting. Adam was kept busy because he realised the highly publicised Power-point programme was on next! Adam had bought a couple of the large Aechmea hybrids with spineless leaves originally done some years ago by Chester Skotak. Chester has moved on to better things because his goal is to produce large flowerheads, scapes strong enough to hold the flowerhead and dusty leaves. Adam was able to show they certainly had large flowerheads. What will the offsets do? Reasonable success has been reported in the Eastern States so we wait and watch Adam! There were several Guzmania in flower to show this genus can be grown in Adelaide but Adam suggested that the use of rainwater was a great help. The inflorescence on a Guzmania does stay in colour for a long time making it a favourite with those in Queensland. If you are after the same long lasting colour without the hassle of special growing conditions then try Nidularium which are what Elton Leme calls Brazil’s answer to Guzmania. One on display was Nidularium antoineanum with its large red primary bracts and as the flowering progresses this red changes to a dark blue. Alteratively, if you are a person who gets bored seeing the same flower for weeks on end there are billbergias to consider and there were several on display.

Flowering time for Vrieseas seem to me to be just as erratic as many Neoregelias with the main link being the time of year the offsets get rooted and the timing of the various hot and cold spells we get each year. I know that Peter Huddy had a great theory but even that does not always work. For example we had Vriesea ‘April’s Fire’ named by him, in bud and ready to flower in July! If anyone has a theory they want to write about, I will gladly print it!

And so to the Tillandsia stand where there were some interesting happenings. For rarity we had T. polzii flowering and a T. bella trying so hard to live up to its name. Both species are in that group around T. tenuifolia where all have the same sepal shape and floral arrangement. Even in T. araujei the difference seems to rely on the length of the scape which has me asking. “How long is a piece of string?” But then if all were called T. tenuifolia we would have nothing to discuss! The flowering Vriesea appenii or is it Tillandsia appenii had an interesting history in that it must have been 10 years ago that Len Colgan got an offset from me. The larger offsets I kept for myself are still ‘growing’!

And finally there was the oddity of Bill Treloar’s which went by the name of T. matudae but was it? It had blue flowers! In 1949 Lyman Smith described T. matudae from Chiapas, Mexico without telling us the colour of the petals. In 1974 Lyman described a T. velickiana with white flowers from Guatemala. In 1990 Renate Ehlers described T. feldhoffii with blue flowers from Guatemala. In 1993 Harry Luther reported his findings where Lyman Smith had got it wrong. Undoubtedly the plants were very similar and had similar habitats and only when flowering could you tell the difference. T. matudae stayed and had white petals. T. velickiana had its petal colour changed from white to blue and because T. feldhoffii had blue flowers it was considered a synonym of T. velickiana.

You may remember that you can have white petalled AND blue petalled T. lorentziana and the same applies to T. reichenbachii. Wouldn’t it have been easier for Bill if the 1949 name of T.matudae included both blue and white flowering forms – BUT ALAS! Bill did suggest that the plant had previously flowered white but I did not believe him because he only brought in one plant! I am forever sceptical about an offset of a plant having a different colour flower. Only recently I received a photo from Czechoslovakia of a clump of plants collected in El Salvador. Here one plant was flowering blue and the other white! I worked out that the name could well be Tillandsia paucifolia but why the different colour? There was no dead inflorescence and all the plants in the clump were about the same size. Here was clearly a batch of seedlings, each genetically different, and one just happened to be an albino!

And so to Bromeliads A-Z where I had supplied the photos but Len had arranged them to be put into Power-point. This is an ideal way to show photos but you do need a laptop computer and a compatible projector. The advantage over a slide presentation is that you can take as many copies of the Disk as you like AND you don’t have the problem of upside down slides or them falling on the floor! The programme was only to show how varied Bromeliads can be where we showed at least one species from every genus and subgenus. Well, almost, because people did not pick up we had missed Ursulaea! In all an interesting afternoon and if any other Society has access to a laptop and a compatible projector it is easy to burn them a copy disk to use at their own meeting!

George’s Problem or Bills Folly
If you were at the November 2004 Show you may have noticed whisperings about a plant that George Rudolph had that had ‘Aechmea nallyi’ on the label. Photos were taken and accusations made. Sometimes, things take a while to get decided and this is but one! This all goes back to the dim and distant past when Bill Treloar used to get plants from Olwen Ferris. He was really proud of his Aechmea nallyi which Olwen said was extra vigorous because she had grown it from self-set seed. Bill was aware that A. nallyi was a beauty and would be very difficult to grow in Bute – but it was a seedling so it should do better. The problem was that Bill was unaware that at that time no Aechmea nallyi had ever visited our shores and that Olwen’s plant was really an Aechmea hybrid that eventually got called ‘Julian Nally’.

In any event, an offset got to George and as he so often does, he grew it well and it flowered and it arrived at the Show. I wanted to call the plant ‘George’s Problem’ but he threw up his arms – you know how he does this – and I could see it was not what he really wanted. Bill is less excitable and it has taken this long for us to come to a decision! Clearly the plant was not Aechmea nallyi nor Aechmea ‘Julian Nally’ but something else and father must have been a big fellow! Photographs will eventually be on the Cultivar Register but if you want a largish prickly beast and are passing by Bill’s Bute Bromeliad Nursery just ask for ‘Bill’s Folly’.
(See Aechmea Bill's Folly for image.)

Billbergia ‘Collevii’ at July 2005
Since the early 1970’s I have been trying to get a good photo of a plant called Billbergia ‘Collevii’. My plant never flowered and yet for 30 years I was hearing reports of flowering but alas no photos for me to examine. It was in the 1980’s that I started to look closely at Billbergia ‘Chas Webb’ which had been guessed as a (amoena x vittata) hybrid, and what were the real differences between it and Billbergia ‘Breauteana’ a hybrid made in 1884 in France. The parents of B. ‘Breauteana’ are quoted as (pallescens x vittata) and we know that B.pallescens became B. amoena. I could find no differences and convinced myself at least, that B. ‘Breauteana’ had got to Australia as an unknown, early in the 1900’s.
In my investigations into this saga I bumped into Billbergia ‘Collevii’ which was a hybrid (amoena x leopoldi) done in the late 1800’s using the same parentage when we realise that B. leopoldi is now B. vittata! If we follow Chevalier - See Bromeliad Cultivar register - the plants look similar and have blue petals.
In 2000 I got a photo from Ruby Ryde which really had me wondering because here was a plant with clear traits of a Billbergia amoena - which is one of the parents of B. ‘Collevii’. This feeling was confirmed recently when I got a photo from George Rudolph and I decided something must be reported.
I have never seen self set seed on my various B. Chas Webb’ and wonder if it ever does because to my mind what we are growing as B. ‘Collevii’ is really ‘Collevii’ F2.
I will be making a note in the Cultivar register but making no attempt to give a new name to it as I usually suggest. The name ‘Collevii’ has been too long associated with the amoena looking plant for it to be willingly altered to a new name by ALL who have the plant.
Just remember the problem if you try to identify a hybrid from the parents listed!
A photo of the Australian B. ‘Collevii’ is on the Bromeliads in Australia Website, click here.

August meeting from the absent Secretary’s desk.
Apparently all went very well even though I was not present to brag. The recent operation has left me a bit sore and sorry!
Before I start writing from Margaret’s notes I do have something of importance to tell you. One of the hardest things to explain at a Show to a new Brom buyer is the fact that the plant flowers once and dies BUT it does offset. As Dennis Cathcart pointed out on the Internet you then have to explain offsetting. Why not move the emphasis away from dying and say the plant ‘Branches and multiplies’? Repeat this to yourself 10 times before volunteering to be a seller at the November 12th Saturday sales!

I am told that there are only 10 members of our group who have plants worthy of being bragged about. Do you know a way where others can be encouraged to participate because you do learn when you get involved? And I assure you even us oldies get a warm fuzzy feeling when our plant is talked about.
Maureen Hick’s Billbergia amoena ‘Red Leaf form’ was of interest because the leaves were green! This goes back 15 years or so when we got wild collected from Elton Leme. The seed came from a ‘Red Leaf form’ but nature always wants to hedge its bets on survival so you can expect some green leaved forms. The red leaved forms would survive in a more sunny environment and green in a more shady position. You just do not know where that bird will deposit the seed! In captivity we did find there was a percentage of green leaved forms and there were some that stayed green for me wherever I put them in the garden. Some stayed a reddish colour but not as red as I would have got if I lived in say Townsville. A reddish leaved form would retain this redness from offset but what do you call one that stays green wherever you put it in? I would suggest the dropping of the ‘Red leaf’ in the name but there may be others who grow this form and have observed differently. So get out there in your garden and have a look and let me know. You may have more of a scientific approach than a bragger!
Margaret B. was proud of her Vriesea ‘Splendide’ especially as she had got it as an offset under formula. It has similarities with the species V. splendens but being a hybrid has the vigour to grow in Adelaide! It gets its name from the leaf colourations as well as the flower. This hybrid was made over 30 years ago in Europe by crossing V. splendens with V. glutinosa.
Len Colgan showed Orthophytum ‘Starlights’ and its parents O. sucrei and O. gurkenii. There is an interesting story about O. sucrei. In the late 1980’s this plant was in Australia really without a name and it was thought to be O. fosterianum var. estevesii. It was not until 1997 that Harry Luther formally named it O. sucrei and he treated O. fosterianum var. estevesii as a synonym. Panic over! It was for a few years and then in 2004 in the Journal of the Bromeliad Society Elton Leme pointed out that O. fosterianum var. estevesii was really O. estevesii! This had me scurrying to see what my O. sucrei looked like and I am fairly confident that we do have O. sucrei in Australia not O. estevesii!
What is variegation? Literally it means something with different colours. Bromeliad-wise I think it means with clear stripes in the leaves. AND I do mean clear. All of us have experienced some faint changes in colour only for it to fade away. Some have experienced quite vivid contrasts in colour for them also to disappear. So I think it is in the nature of Bromeliads to change colour and back again. Bill Treloar with his Billbergia amoena var. carnea will have to be an extreme optimist! Now if you are really after variegation you should start with a plant that is already strongly variegated and then let a rat have a chew at a small offset. That way you can get an albomarginate Billbergia ‘Ralph Graham French’ to reverse its variegation. Ask Margaret B.!
A plant brought in by Adam called Vriesea ‘Highway Beauty’ has a fascinating history if only because of its slowness to reproduce. Investigation has shown that a variegated plant called Vriesea bituminosa x saundersii was being grown in the USA in the 1970’s and was thought to have come from Europe. Nobody bothered to give it a name because it was so slow. It had been in Queensland for some years before our very own Peter Huddy got an offset in around 2000. Some 3 years later he flowered the plant and decided it needed a proper Cultivar name. Knowing Peter’s sense of ‘black’ humour it was no wonder that he called it ‘Highway Beauty’. If, by any chance it lost its variegation it could be called ‘Highway’ and funnily enough this has since happened in New Zealand!

While I do look at plants for sale at Bunnings and similar places I very rarely buy but do shudder at the presentation. I know that Peter Huddy had a great time buying at these places and getting great joy because he got the plant cheaper than the marked price but he rarely got anything extra special by these means. I know that Marj Bamford bought these plants ‘To save them from a fate worse than death’. I know that David Wecker also prowls the retail stores but all are subject to impulse buying. David’s latest acquisition was a Vriesea racinae which grows like a weed in Victoria and we hope he has better luck than those who have been there done that.
(Webmaster's comment... Florists often have flowering potted Broms on display. When they are finished, and typically don't sell, they get chucked! Keep an eye on your local florist and, if your timing is correct, "make them an offer". I usually try for $5 and have picked up some "dead" plants that pup and bloom beautifully in a year or two.)
Aechmea ‘Bert’ seems to like living at Len Cork’s place. It certainly does not like wet feet.
George’s T. erubescens was in spike – again. I am sure it is the elevation at Ridgehaven that is the reason for his success!
We thank Peter Shelbourn for showing others what can be achieved with tillandsias with a bit of ingenuity. All he has to work on now is how to attach a name so that it is not clearly visible.

Nidularium ‘Karamea Morobe’.

This saga started in 1940 or thereabouts when Morobe in Belgium crossed Nidularium innocentii with N. fulgens. We know that the ‘innocentii’ at that time had reddish leaves and must not be confused with the current concept that N. innocentii can have either reddish or totally green leaves.

It was not until after World War II in 1946 that Dutrie described the plant as “frankly superior to ‘Chantrieri’ -- numerous leaves, strong without stiffness, well displayed -- a beautiful bright brown colour above, lustrous dark brown below – at bloom time , the centre becomes scarlet over a diameter of 25cm. Notable in every respect.’ That was how the Europeans saw this plant. There is one slight problem in that I do not have the original article in French and the use of the colour ‘brown’ worries me a little!

In the Cultivar Register 1998 we also read the following description by Jungle Gardens in Florida. No date, but I assume from the 1970’s. ‘A vigorous plant with the underside of the leaves a beautiful purplish maroon – in flower the central rosette is a long lasting bright cerise.’ I don’t know about you but these sound like different plants!

By the way, I am trying contacts in Belgium to see if we can find out from old catalogues what ‘Madame Robert Morobe’ should look like.

In the 1970’s seed called Nidularium ‘Madame Robert Morobe’ was on the BSI seed list. - I know because I got some. At that time, we ALL believed that the Americans knew everything about Bromeliads. I have since found out that the Americans do not know all and in fact are probably less interested in correct names than we Antipodeans! Also we now know that you just cannot grow seed from a hybrid and call the plants the same name. Seed from hybrids does funny things like giving you a percentage of the original parents! So we had plants being grown in Australia called ‘Madame Robert Morobe’ which were not ‘Madame Robert Morobe’!

Now to the New Zealand connection. In the 1980’s Maureen Green imported a Nidularium ‘Madame Robert Morobe’ from Australia. She knows who from but we are having problems getting the person to remember! In any event in those days Maureen believed in the Aussies even though she kept looking at her plant and scratching her head. Referring to the 1998 Cultivar Register didn’t help much either. Her plant had totally green leaves.

You must know that Gerry Stansfield and I have great ‘discussions’ about cultivar identity and when we got Birgit Rhode involved things really got moving about this Green ‘Madame Robert Morobe’.

Maureen decided that giving the name ‘Karamea Morobe’ to her green leaved plant was the best solution. If you have not realised this, if you see ‘Karamea‘ on a cultivar you will know it comes from the Green stable!
So if you did get a green leaved ‘Madame Robert Morobe’ in the last 20 years please change your label!
The jury is still out as to what the true ‘Madame Robert Morobe’ should look like!