Ron Jell 01/17

Ron Jell ... "This is my first flowering of this plant, which I do not remember seeing before in flower in other collections. I don't know how common it is here, but on looking it up, I note that UD had posted photos in April 2000. So it may be quite common and in many collections."
Peter Tristram ... "This is a neat little species and damned hard to photograph - well done and well grown! There are a few forms of it around, varying mainly in size and the angle of dip of the spike. With a flower like that you'd expect a genus change too - Lemeltonia now, along with the others in that little group: dodsonii, acostasolisii, narthecioides, scaligera, cornuta and monadelpha. Most of these are fragrant as well."

George Nieuwenhoven 02/16 ex.CL. "Seems to like our harsh Adelaide Summer".

Steve Molnar 12/17

Bruce Dunstan 12/24 "Large form"

Tillandsia triglochinoides Presl, Rel. Haenk. 1: 125. 1827.
Tillandsia hartwegiana Brongniart ex Baker, Handb. Bromel. 171. 1889; nom. illeg. in synon. Based on Hartweg 699.
Desc from S&D p851
Plant stemless, flowering to 3 dm high.
Leaves few in a lax rosette, 2 dm long, appressed-lepidote;
Sheaths hardly distinct;
Blades linear-triangular, long-attenuate, subpungent, rigid, 7 mm wide, cinereous or yellowish.
Scape slender, erect, shorter than the leaves;
Scape-bracts tubular-erect, imbricate and wholly concealing the scape, sublanceolate, acute, lepidote toward apex.
Inflorescence simple, rather lax, very narrowly lanceolate or linear, acute, ca 13 cm long, 8 mm wide, strongly complanate, about 22-flowered;
Rhachis slightly but distinctly undulate, not much thickened at the base of the flowers.
Floral bracts erect or suberect, scarcely or not at all imbricate, about 7 mm apart, triangular-ovate, ecarinate, 19 mm long, 8 mm wide, enfolding and exceeding the sepals, submembranaceous, prominently nerved, glabrous;
Flowers subsessile.
Sepals equally very short-connate, lance-ovate, acute, to 12 mm long, scarcely carinate, coriaceous, nearly even, lustrous;
Petals 21 mm long, the claw linear, the blade broadly lanceolate, acute, reflexed at anthesis, yellow (or white – Gilmartin);
Stamens deeply included.
Type. Haenke s n (holotype PR, photo US), Guayaquil, Ecuador.
DISTRIBUTION. Epiphytic in woods, 400-800-m alt, southern Ecuador and northern Peru.
ECUADOR. GUAVAS: Zamborondon, Mar 1842 (?), Hartweg 699 (BM, K, W, F photo 29986); Cerro Azul, Hacienda Barcelona, near Guayaquil, 10 Dec 1961, Gilmartin 530 (US); 21 Mar 1962, 626 (US); 632 (US); 636 (US); 21 Apr 1962, 681 (US); km 80, Guayaquil to Quevedo, 2 Aug 1965, Gilmartin 1052-A (US). ORO: Portovelo, Zaruma, Aug-Sep 1923, Hitchcock 21219 (GH, NY, US); 21246 (GH, NY, US); Santa Rosa, 18 Mar 1955, Asplund 15798 (S, US). PERU. PIURA: Canchaque, 5 Oct 1954, Rauh & Hirsch ?-2125 (US); s d, Ellenberg 1617 (U).

NOTES from Gilmartin 1972
From the specimens collected to date, the range of this very distinct species seems to be coastal Ecuador not more than 100 km from the start of the rise of the Andes or if more distant than on a Cerro and at elevations at least 200 m high. The specimens that have been collected generally seem to be fertile and seed production is copious. Where found, specimens are generally abundant. It is very common in cultivated land, especially on coffee and around Fincas on such trees as the "Jaboncillo"

Tillandsia triglochinoides Presl, Rel. Haenk. 1: 125. 1827.
T. foliis argenteo - lepidotis linearibus planis apice subulatis canaliculatis basi dilatatis, spica simplicissima, floribus distichis erectis adpressis, bracteis glabris calycis capsulaeque longitudine.
Hab. in Guayaquil, Perennial
Specimen defloratum habitu et dimensionibus foliorum caulis spicaeque praecedenti speciei accedens, sed foliis lepidotis et floribus erectis adpressis diversum.
Spica stricta erecta disticha. Bracteae 4 lineas longae ovato - oblongae obtusae glabrae striatae. Calyx praecedentis speciei. Capsula oblonga trigona longitudine bracteae, jamjam effoeta, valvulis erectis obtusis.