Quesnelia Rafael Oliveira
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Quesnelia Rafael Oliveira
From BCR ... "A variegated form of Q. marmorata found by Rafael Oliveira de Faria in Bananeiras, near Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1995."
Notes from Chester George Skotak 11/21 ... "Years ago, maybe 1992, a man traveling from Brazil showed up at my nursery here in Costa Rica. He had innocently carried a suitcase load of special bromeliads from Rio to Miami, and walked through customs without anyone stopping him to check his luggage. Plants without papers, yikes! The guys at agriculture must have been at lunch or asleep. Anyway, he walked outside where people were waiting for lost passengers, such as him, and the collector who was to pick him up and receive the bromeliads, was not there.
Now what? The Brazilian had no way to communicate with the collector. As a last minute hairbrained idea, he took a flight to Costa Rica and once again innocently walked through customs with his suitcase full of 'no papers' Brazilian plants and left them with me. It was a surprise visit.
I put the dehydrated plants on the bench and he showed up a week later and repacked his plants, he was going back to Miami. Proper papers and such were not mentioned. I was left with two small pups of a variegated Quesnelia and slowly multiplied them.
The Brazilian? I never heard from him again about these plants, I assume he got caught by the USDA because Quesnelia 'Raphael Oliveira', correctly named RAFAEL, never showed up in cultivation anywhere in the USA. I knew the plant and went ahead and gave my Brazilian friend, Rafael, credit deserved for his highly ornamental discovery. I slowly released the new Quesnelia and it began to spread in collections. As far as I know this is how it came into cultivation.
Anyway, that's my story."
Updated 06/11/21