Pseudalcantarea grandis was Tillandsia grandis
(See DD02/17 for list of all new species & Cultivars.)
Click thumbnails for full size, scaled to a new window.
The first photograph above shows Russell C. Mott, superintendent of the Cornell University Conservatory in Ithaca, New York, inspecting the buds of Tillandsia grandis. This plant was a gift of Mulford B. Foster, who brought it from his tropical garden in Orlando, Florida, in 1951. Originally, he had collected it at an elevation of 7,000 feet. Tillandsia grandis is native to the mountains of Central Mexico and British Honduras. Even in its native habitat it may not flower until it is 20 to 25 years old and then produces a flower stalk that may reach a height of 15 feet. Andrew Flower ..."Picture is of Bruce Purdie at our local Tillandsia Study Group meeting last Sunday, looking at a T. grandis in our conservatory. The plant is one I brought back from a visit to Mulford Foster in 1972, flowering for the first time. From memory I think Mulford said it would take 30-40 years to flower here.
If you look hard you wil see a big prickly thing in the window behind Bruce - that is a Puya raimondii seedling in our garden, growing in soil at the same level as Bruce's feet. The puya is from seed collected by staff of the Frankfurt Palmengarden (1990) at 4,200m altitude. Reason it is so small (!) it was grown in a PB5 until planted out when we moved to our current home in 1999-ish."
Linda & Rohan Wilke 05/15
Linda Wilke 01/17
Rohan Wilkes 02/18
Linda & Rohan 05/15 ..."We are hoping our baby will start to flower this year. We purchased this from an elderly gentleman on the gold coast, he had purchased it from Pine Grove in the late 90's." Linda & Rohan 01/17 ..."Still no flower, recovering from it's move here, no humidity, frosts, and no trees for shade. But still growing."
Linda Wilkes 02/18
Linda Wilkes 05/18 Just over 2.5m tall.
Linda Wilkes 05/18 ... "A few in this discussion group will remember the question being asked 'has our super sized grandis flowered yet?' Well The wait is closer to being over than it was 2 and a half years ago. We have real progress at long last. Rohan did not really want to show it so bleached but I will show it warts and all (I actually love the sun mottled effect)." Peter Tristram ... "What a plant! But is it P. grandis? The mottled, pointy leaves make me query though you’ll know soon enough.
Typically grandis gives lots of adventitious pups when very small and silvery then that’s often it once the mature leaves form, very much like many Andean species. It does self though.
I look forward to an update. At least the cooler weather coming on will favour spike development after another very hot summer."
Linda & Rohan Wilkes 09/18
Wilkes 11/18 Flowers!
Linda & Rohan Wilkes 11/18. Recovery from damage.
Linda Wilkes 11/18 ... "My somewhat naughty mini galloways decided to chew the flowers off the Inflorescence and left us with only half a dozen flowers that actually opened. Today we had a good look at the plant and noticed some strange happenings. Where the inflorescence has not been completely destroyed we now have new floral branches growing. Further down and up the Inflo spike we have more branches growing.
Has any one ever had this with a Tillandsia spike that got damaged some how ? I know not everyone is crazy pet people like me and has pet cows to chew plants. Flower picture of one of the few flowers that opened after cows destroyed most of the inflo on us.
I shall get in now and say NO we are not eating them, they are pets, and shall grow old and become garden bed fertilizer. We should have watched them closer and put them in their paddock before they could destroy the plant."
