Ronnbergia nidularioides H.Luther, J. Bromeliad Soc. 33(1): 25, fig.1983. See J Aguirre-Santoro, Plant Syst. Evol. DOI 10.1007/s00606-017-1394-y 2017
= Nidularium deleonii L.B.Sm., Bromeliad Soc. Bull. 12: 105, figs. 1962. Non-Ronnbergia deleonii L.B.Sm.
TYPE: Colombia, Narino, 6 km north of Espriella, Apr 1960, N.J. DeLeon 362 (holotype: US! SEL {Photograph}!).

Habitats: Understory of montane humid forests.
Distribution area: Endemic to the Choco/Darien region from southwestern Colombia to western Ecuador at 200-2000 m a. s. 1.
Additional specimens examined: Ecuador: Hoover 2009 MO).
Ronnbergia nidularioides H. Luther, J. Bromeliad Soc. 33: 25. 1983.
Nidularium deleonii L.B. Sm., Bromeliad Soc. Bull. 12: 104, fig. 1962.
Ronnbergia deleonii L.B. Sm., in part, Flora Neotropica Monograph 14, part III: 1499-1500,1979, no Ronnbergia deleonii L.B. Sm., Phytologia 9: 247. 1963.

Desc from Brom. of Ecuador Manzanares 2002
PLANT flowering 50 cm tall, 40 cm wide, rosette forming a elongated rosette and tubular in the lower part, epiphyte.
LEAVES few.
SHEATHS 20 cm long, 6 cm wide, suberect, elliptic, margins entire, densely lepidote, purple.
BLADES 55 cm long, 3.5 cm wide, margins with spines 0.5 mm long, lingulate, canaliculate, apex rounded and apiculate, abaxially densely lepidote, green to purple.
INFLORESCENCE 9 cm long, 2 cm wide, simple, 8-12 flowers, dense, sub-capitate, covered with white trichomes, apex sterile.
PEDUNCLE stays submerged in center of rosette, 5 cm long, 5 mm in diameter, erect, covered by white trichomes.
PEDUNCLE-BRACTS 7.5 cm long, 1.8 cm wide, lanceolate, apex acuminate, margins serrate, erect, membranaceous, imbricate.
FLORAL-BRACTS 6-7 mm long, 1-4 mm wide, triangular, apex acuminate and pungent, margins sparsely serrate, covered with white trichomes, exceeding the ovary, brown.
FLOWERS sessile.
SEPALS partly connate, 34 mm long, 7 mm wide, papyraceous, asymmetrical, apex armed with a large mucro, covered with white trichomes, brown.
PETALS base linear and about equal to the sepals, 4 cm long, blades elliptic with sharp apex, blades white with bluish margins.
OVARY 18 mm long, subglobose, covered with white trichomes, brown.
TYPE. DeLeon 362 (holotype: US), Espriella, Narino, Colombia, Apr. 1960, cultivated and flowered in 1962.
ETYMOLOGY. Resembling the genus Nidularium.

OBSERVATIONS. R. nidularioides has been confused with Aechmea aciculosa. It is distinguished by an inflorescence submerged in the center of the rosette. The leaves and flowers are a smaller size than A. aciculosa and the foliage is red when flowering. It is found only in the province of Pichincha. It is the only species of Ronnbergia without petiolate leaves in Ecuador.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. Pichincha: road to Salto del Tigre from Pedro Vicente Maldonado, 700 m, Sept. 1993, J M. MANZANARES, PABLO, NELE & REBECA MANZANARES 5032 (QCNE); road Bancos-Pedro Vicente Maldonado, km 107, 00°35'N 79°08'W, 900 m, Jul. 1994, J M. MANZANARES 5345/00118 (QCNE); collected on the road Bancos-Pedro Vicente Maldonado, km 107, 00°35'N 79°08'W, 900 m, Jul. 1994, flowering in cultivation, Jan. 1995, J M. MANZANARES 5737 (QCNE); collected on the road Bancos- Pedro Vicente Maldonado, 1997, flowering in cultivation, Dec. 1999, J M. MANZANARES 6925 (QCNE).

DISTRIBUTION. Epiphyte in the low montane rainforest in the Coastal Region.

Ronnbergia nidularioides by H Luther in J. Brom. Soc. 33(1): 25,37. 1983
Recent field work in western Ecuador as well as the study of cultivated plants at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens confirms that the species originally described as Nidularium deleonii L.B. Smith was correctly transferred to the genus Ronnbergia, but that it is not conspecific with R. deleonii L.B. Smith as cited by Dr. Smith in his monograph of the Bromeliaceae (Smith & Downs, 1979).
As the specific epithet deleonii is thus preoccupied, the following nomenclatural changes are necessary to incorporate this unnamed plant into the genus Ronnbergia.

Ronnbergia nidularioides Luther, nom. nov.
(Nidularium deleonii L. B. Smith, Bromel. Soc. Bull. 12:104, 1962.)
(Ronnbergia deleonii L.B.Smith pro parte, Flora Neotropica Monograph 14, part III: 1499-1500, 1979, non Ronnbergia deleonii L.B. Smith, Phytologia 9:247. 1963.)
Type: COLOMBIA: Narino: vic. of Espriella, April 1960, flowered in cultivation, Jan. 1962, Nat DeLeon 362 (Holotype: US !; photo SEL). Additional collections: ECUADOR: Los Rios: Rio Palenque Science Center, 220 m, 27 Feb. 1975, C.H. Dodson 5783 (SEL); Pichincha: Montanas de Ila, Centinela, 600 m, 13 Feb. 1982, C.H.Dodson &A. H. Gentry 12421 (SEL). Not vouchered: ECUADOR: Pichincha: vic. of Tandapi, ca. 1500 m, all plants sterile, Sept. 1981 (pers. obs.).

It should be especially noted that figure 471 on page 1500 of the Flora Neotropica monograph is based on the type of Nidularium deleonii and therefore represents Ronnbergia nidularioides and not R. deleonii as is stated in the text.
Ronnbergia nidularioides differs from R. deleonii by having broad subligulate leaves, nearly symmetrical sepals, blue petals and orange, apparently non-explosive fruit. In the latest key to the genus (Smith & Downs, 1979) R. nidularioides would key out to R. petersii but differs from this Panamanian species by its much more spreading habit, shorter scape and longer sepals.
Ronnbergia nidularioides is found in dense, wet forests where it occurs as an epiphyte low on the trees or as a terrestrial in large clusters.

Protologue
Nidularium deleoni L. B. Smith, Bromel. Soc. Bull. 12:104, 1962
N. burchellii (Baker) Mez et N. microps E. Morr. ex Mez affinis, sed axi simplici, elongato, floribus majoribus, laminis petalorum azureis differt.

Plant stemless;
leaves in a broadly funnelform rosette, to 47 cm, long, bearing a narrow median channel along the top of the sheath and the base of the blade, covered beneath with fine appressed white scales;
sheaths large, narrowly elliptic, blades strap-shaped, rounded and apiculate, slightly contracted toward base, to 55 mm. wide, less densely lepidote and darker above, subdensely serrulate;
scape 8 cm. long but completely hidden;
scape-bracts imbricate, broadly elliptic, serrulate, very pale green, the upper ones much enlarged and forming a tight cylindric involucre around the flowers;
inflorescence central, nested in the center of the rosette, simple, ellipsoid, 8 cm. long including the petals, 3 cm. in diameter, many-flowered;
axis 35 mm. long, finely white-lanate;
floral bracts narrow, equaling the sepals, subentire;
flowers sessile;
sepals oblong, subsymmetrical, 32 mm, long including the 6 mm. terminal mucro, 6 mm. wide, short-connate, white-flocculose;
petals 40 mm. long, the blades acute, spreading, 15 mm. long, blue;
stamens included;
pollen-grains ellipsoid, biporate;
ovary thick-ovoid; epigynous tube small, narrowly funnel form; placentae median, large; ovules obtuse.
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, collected 6 km. north of Espriella, Narino, Colombia, April 1960, by Nat J. DeLeon (No. 362) and flowered by him, January 1962, in Miami, Florida.

Notes
Nat DeLeon has flowered a handsome but very puzzling new bromeliad that he collected in Colombia. At first glance the sunken nested flowers and spreading blue acute petal-blades make one think of Neoregelia. However, on dissecting the plant one finds that the simple inflorescence has a long axis like an Aechmea and sessile (unstalked) flowers and unappendaged petals like a Nidularium. Since Nidularium includes one species with a long axis, N. loeseneri, and two with spreading acute petals, N. Burchellii and N. microps, it seems best to locate the new species in this genus. It is a pleasure to dedicate this new species to Mr. De Leon as the first fruits of his exploration:

SOME NOTES ON NIDULARIUM DELEONII by NAT DE LEON in Brom. Soc. Bull. 12(6): 105-7. 1962
It seems a bit ironic that a series of unplanned events would help lead to the discovery of a new bromeliad species, yet such is the case concerning Nidularium deleonii.
In April of 1960, two days before I was to leave for Colombia, I was notified that my flight had been canceled but that I could leave at a different time on the same day. This would be fine provided a friend who was to meet me at the airport in Cali could be notified. I was promised it would be taken care of. Arriving at the Cali airport my friend was nowhere to be seen. Two hours later I had reached the boiling point and took a taxi to the airline office. I promised heads would roll if something wasn't done and three telephones went into action. An hour later I was still in the same fix. I walked the streets of Cali trying to figure my next move and then fate stepped in, for while walking the streets of Colombia's second largest city, I ran smack into my friend.
As fast as it could be arranged we were on a plane for Pasto, for the object of our search was to be that area south of Pasto along the Simon Bolivar Highway. Arriving in Pasto we soon learned that the last bus had already left for points south. This proved to be a major calamity, for the buses only ran twice a week. We wasted three days trying to obtain transportation out of the city; two of these on promises that never materialized. Finally we were on the road and since all the delays meant a change in plans, I selected Junin as our first collecting stop.
Collecting about Junin was fantastic. While the area is perhaps best known as being in the heart of Anthurium andreanum country, the bromels there have no rivals. A variety of miniature Guzmania species particularly caught my eye. To see Ronnbergia morreniana growing wild is a sight to behold, and Pitcairnia bakeri is perhaps the most interesting of the genus. Even as I collected the gems Junin had to offer, I somehow had the feeling they would not like growing conditions in Miami, so we pulled up stakes to head for Tumaco where I could send home all my loot by air freight.
The bus to Espriella that would meet the train to Tumaco broke down. You guessed it - we missed the train to Tumaco. Since there would not be another for two days, there was nothing to do but more collecting.

Espriella is a little town in the Department of Narino, Southwest Colombia. To the south of the town stretches a vast swampland that continues on to the coast. To the north the area starts its climb and there one can find plenty of virgin forests to explore. We spent our first day collecting about the town and its immediate vicinity. Here we collected Catopsis sessiliflora, Vriesea sanguinolenta, and Aechmea angustifolia. The latter was a superior phase, its foliage heavily spotted with red. Also seen here was Guzmania hitchcockiana, a noble bromel with leaves heavily pubescent.
The next day we hopped a truck ride heading north out of town. When we reached a point some 6 km. the woods looked ripe for picking. High in the trees we could see hundreds of Guzmania lingulata var. flammea in bloom. What a sight - like so many torches lighting up the sky. Here we again collected bromels found in or about the town. In brighter areas Aechmea dactylina held its bright red inflorescence bracts upright and proud. This new introduction, collected in both red and green foliage forms, will be heard from in the future.
Of course a number of bromels not seen in flower at the time were also collected and brought home. One of these flowered for the first time in January of this year. This flowering plant sent to Dr. Lyman B. Smith, is now to bear the name Nidularium deleoni. How well I remember collecting this particular bromel, for after detaching it from its host I turned to dump it, when out sprang a viper. While it was collected growing in rather deep shade, its scaly leaves suggested that it could tolerate more light. At home I have grown it on the bright side resulting in a more compact and more tubular plant. Nidularium deleonii I will have to admit, is not showy by comparison to other species of the genus. Its inflorescence is sunken within the cup and its pale green scape bracts and light blue flowers will never make people forget Nidularium regelioides. It is, however, an important discovery, for in the words of Dr. Smith, "Your new species of Nidularium is all the more remarkable because it is the first outside of eastern Brazil. It is also the first addition I have had to the genus since my Bromeliaceae of Brazil."