Tillandsia Kashkin
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Tillandsia Kashkin
Perfumed flowers.
cv. of unknown parentage - Butcher said, "Possible natural hybrid? - Michael Kashkin of Fuchsialand, Los Angeles, circa 1980 offered a Tillandsia as 'Bolivia species' - There are tenuous links to Tillandsia jucunda but both Till and Luther agree it is a possible natural hybrid". Same as T. 'Inca Gold' but 'Kashkin' has priority.
See Bromeletter 1994-5, "Uncle Derek Says".
| Ken Woods 08/04 |
Chris Larson 07/18 |
Chris Larson ... "What an interesting scent. I could not align it with a scent of any other tillandsia"
| Mark Supple 11/16 |
Ken Woods 08/04 |
Mark Supple ... "This is flowering at the moment, the perfume is beautiful, from Peter Tristram, the label has Tropiflora Yellow Flower like Kashkin."
Stephen Haines ... "1st photo; This is what I have as Kashkin. 2nd photo; This is what I have labelled as T.sp Peru yellow flower fragrant."
Chris Larson ... "Just had Kashkin in flower here. The flowers on my plant, which I think came as the Peru sp yellow. The flowers changed colour very quickly, but they all seem close enough to me to be one sp/form."
Mark Supple ... "Yes once the flower is out it's a yellow then very quickly within a 24 hour period it changes colour to a dull yellow then to almost white."
Derek Butcher ... "Kashkin is another plant that can be linked to Tillandsia International and has had a chequered career. See attached. Tillandsia International is not currently selling 'Inca Gold' nor 'Kashkin'. In 2011 Peter Tristram sent me a photo which is a dead ringer to your photo which he called 'Kashkin' (see DVD) and I had no reason to doubt him. My article written some 10 years ago shows how many names were being used in Australia. Perhaps some collector is growing the 'old' Kashkin and can send us a photo! The photo in BinA from Ken Woods is also interesting for comparison reasons."
Are they different or is it just a variation in the colour of the petals? In Stephen's photo of Kashkin I see different colours on the same plant. I have a gut feeling it is natural hybrid where we do not know whether Kashkin collected one or several . If several he would have been unaware of the variation in petal colour.
Peter Tristram ... "Another possible sp. nova is T. Kashkin, if it could be found in the wild. It has delightfully fragrant flowers."
Tillandsia ‘Kashkin’ by Derek Butcher, revisited in 2006
In December 1993 I flowered a plant called Tillandsia ‘caulescent jucunda’ that I had received from Keith Golinski. That is when the fun started.
Many years ago, Michael Kashkin did some collecting in Bolivia and sold them through Fuchsialand in California. One such plant was called Tillandsia sp. Bolivia. This plant came to Australia via Grace Goode with this name on the label. In 1989 when Bob Whitman (of Cryptanthus fame) was in Australia he promised Grace he would investigate the matter and took a specimen back to the USA with him. After prompting from Grace, Bob finally told her that the plant was T. jucunda saying that Harry Luther had named it. Luckily Harry and I have great rapport because I told him of his mistake! He had never seen the plant concerned but agreed with my views that it appeared to be a hybrid. It certainly did not link with any Bolivian species described at that time. Dr Walter Till was also able to confirm its hybridity.
After trying to contact Michael Kashkin’s widow I decided to call the plant ‘Kashkin’ in 1994.
In 1999 I became aware that Tillandsia International in California was selling a plant called ‘Inca Gold’ which I believe to be identical and no doubt would have come from the Fuchsialand source.
In Nov 2006 after playing with ripe apples I eventually saw a flower on a plant I got from Keith Golinski in 1995 as ‘Peru scented’. I had previously handed this plant out at the Tilly Nuts Conference in Albury with the exhortation of “Tell me when it flowers!” I had no response so I can only assume they had the same luck I had. Imagine my surprise when I saw petals that were greyish with a tint of gold. Margaret was called in to confirm it had a scent. This just had to be Tillandsia ‘Kashkin’ and I checked my past records.
I could find no difference.
So this plant is wandering around Queensland. If you do happen to flower a plant that vegetatively looks like a T. jucunda but has a flower that is delightfully scented and has a colour hard to describe then change the name to ‘Kashkin’. "
Updated 15/11/18
