Hohenbergia leopoldo-horstii E. Gross, Rauh & E.M.C. Leme is related to H. vestita L.B. Smith, but differs from it in the following chracteristics:
Leaves smaller. Inflorescence bipinnate with smaller, few-flowering spikes. Floral bracts longer than the sepals.
Holotype: B.G.H. 56715, leg. Leopoldo Horst HU 1147, in Herb. Inst. System. Bot. Univ. Heidelberg (HElD).
Locality and distribution: terrestrial on sandstone rocks, near Gran Mogul, Bahia, Brazil.

Plant stemless, flowering (with erect inflorescence) ~ 1 m high.
Leaves numerous, forming a rosette 30 cm high and 30 cm wide.
Sheaths conspicuous, lanceolate-ovate, 14cm long, 12cm wide, green, light-brown at the base, with violet spots and stripes, lepidote on both sides; scales with a brown center.
Blades ligulate, with 1 cm long, violet apex, 15-20 cm long, above the sheath 8 cm wide, the outer blades recurved, the inner erect-spreading, green with some violet spots, lepidote on both sides, at the margin with very coarse, retrorse, brown-violet teeth 3-5 mm long; these 1 cm distant from each other.
Scape curved, ~70 cm long, round, 6 mm thick, red, sparsely white floccose.
Scape bracts erect, soon drying off light brown, nerved, white floccose beneath, lanceolate, acuminate, brown-violet, shorter than the internodes (only the basal ones somewhat longer), 4.5 cm long, 1.5 cm wide, even, not serrulate.
Inflorescence cylindric, loosely bipinnate, up to 20 cm long, with 10-15 spikes;
Spikes subsessile, few-flowering, fasciculate, 2 cm long, 1.5 cm wide.
Primary bracts lanceolate, long acuminate, 2.7 cm long, 7 mm wide, soon drying off brown, nerved, sparsely lepidote on both sides, even, the basal ones longer, the apical ones about as long as the spikes.
Floral bracts suborbicular, 1.3 cm long (inclusive of a 5-mm long, brown mucro), green, nerved when dry, becoming glabrous, ecarinate.
Flowers subsessile, 2 cm long, erect.
Sepals shorter than the floral bracts, asymmetric, with a hyaline wing, green, densely white floccose, ~8 mm long, ecarinate.
Petals ligulate, erect, violet, white to the base, 1.3 cm long, at anthesis not recurved, at the base with a 4 mm high adnate ligule.
Stamens and style enclosed.
Ovary light green; epigynous tube conspicuous. Ovules few, almost obtuse.

Hohenbergia leopoldo-horstii was also collected by E.M.C. Leme (Rio de Janeiro) some years ago in the region of Diamantina but was considered a variable H. vestita L.B. Smith. After examining the material, E. Leme is of the opinion that it is a new species (personal communication) and I offer him many thanks for the collaboration.

From: Uwe
To: Peter Tristram
Subject: Note on florapix 5989 Hohenbergia leopoldo-horstii?
Dear Peter, I just browsed through old pages of florapix and discovered the page copied in below. You were asking there whether it could be an Hohenbergia leopoldo-horstii or not. To me, it is not. I will attach two photos of a, let's say, borderline H. leop.-ho., that was found and identified by Walter Till and what is the closest to the plant you have photographed. Even the identification of WT is brave, but he elaborated the whole A4-page of arguments on it. He shall be right, but I never would go a single step further. I spent a row of years on searching on "What the heck is Hohenbergia leopoldo-horstii?" and now I think I puzzled the answer. Even the fcbs-page is not trustworthy with their photos. What you see there, should indeed be Hohenbergia leopoldo-horstii, but I still harbour my doubts. Elton Leme published some new names and he also stressed the fact that, unjustified, a number of good species were thrown in one pot. Hermann Prinsler (grower in * got THREE different plants from Leopoldo Horst as "his" Hohenbergia leopoldo-horstii - personally - according to him. After some activity, now I own all three plants and there is no truth in the statement of Leopoldo Horst. One of them is H. magnispina, the other was determined as H. utriculosa by Walter Till (I have seen the types and probably he was not right in that case) and the third is a yet nameless one. There is a collection of Wolfgang Schindhelm (Berlin) with locality information (Morro Pai Inacio), a plant with "Horst 67" on the label at the Bot Garden Hamburg (type-locality or close to it) and a plant with a Rauh-number, but with divergent info (Seabra) in Heidelberg – that are the plants that most likely deserve the name "Hohenbergia leopoldo-horstii". In the course of the years, I have grabbed all of them. One question remains: Is there any living plant derived from the type collection? If yes, then it should be the Hamburg-plant. .. and that is not the one depicted on florapix 5989.

5989 - Bromeliads (Garden) - 2010-09-20
(Dimension: 1326 x 1778 pixels - Counter: 865) Hohenbergia leopoldo-horstii?
Photographer: Peter Tristram
Note: Saw this on a tour at WBC New Orleans recently. Different again to what I have seen as H. leopoldo-horstii. Very large plant too.
Identification: pending
?Identification: Uwe (2010-09-22) = H. blanchetii - To me, it seems to be a compactly grown H. blanchetii. ?Note: Peter Tristram (2010-09-22) = - Hi Uwe, It is much smaller than what I understand as H. blanchetii which is huge. Also it has a very bulbous rosette like H. leopoldo-horstii and many others. I see where you are coming from though, esp the inflorescence. I didn't see this plant in other collections in the US either - interesting!