Tillandsia Sacabamba
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Tillandsia Sacabamba
Not Yet Published. New species ?
Previously listed on this web site as "sucabamba" (species)
Ray Clark 04/22 as "sucabamba"
Ray Clark ... "I am tickled pink here, (no pun intended).
A plant that I was gifted from Derek Butcher many years ago has just started to flower, T. sucabamba a NYP (not yet published) species collected by Renate in 1992. I'll take some better pics when the plant has dried out, I am considering getting this one registered as a cultivar at least."
Greg Aizlewood ... "I have a similar plant that I got from Lydia Koehres and posted to the Tillandsia discussion group some time ago but was unable to secure a name. Will follow closely."


Ray Clark 12/10/21 ... "Gidday Chris, Len, Ian and Geoff, I am troubled.
I have a plant in my collection ex Derek Butcher labelled T. 'Sucabamba', his collection number is 22 and the original label states "ex RE 09/92, BOL yet to be published". I have had it for six years and it hasn't flowered at this point but did throw one modest pup which is now almost as big as mum, see attached pic.
I have searched the DVD, BinA, the BCR, the Taxon list and in desperation, the FBBS website as well. I would like to capture this plant somehow but cannot find a trace of it anywhere, do any of you have any thoughts, for some reason I believe that it may have come from Peru but I don't know if Renate ever went there."
Chris Larson ... "Just looked again. I reckon the plant is probably Sacabamba (not Sucabamba – though Derek usually uses capitals on his labels – making this mistake less likely). There is a town in Bolivia with this name – near Cochabamba.
I have forwarded the query to Ross, as he can refer back to Derek's records."
Geoff Lawn ... "My Google Search finds no such spelling as "SUCABAMBA". There is a town in central Bolivia named SACABAMBA, which would relate to the "BOL" on Derek's label."
Geoff Lawn to Eric Gouda, 18/04/23 ... "Above is the original discussion from Oct. 2021. How quickly we forget when I.D. cases are left pending.
Eric, from all Ray's photos + info I sent you today, is that enough to initiate botanically describing it as a new species. Do you add an "e" to Latinise the name—"-sacabambae" ?
Or, is it simply an unknown form of an already-described species ?"
Ray Clark ... "Hi Geoff, I would be inclined to go along with your input; namely that a typo has occurred with labels at some point and the name should actually be Sacabamba. Also after spending time exploring other possibilities I would be prepared to believe that our plant is a form of a species already described such as sphaerocephala or even var. tarijensis but I am lacking details of plant and flower specifics so that's a long shot. I would welcome any input from Eric or others in this email chain."
Geoff Lawn ... "Researching further today, I found we did discuss this 2 years ago and I noted that I could find the Municipality of SACABAMBA (note spelling) within Bolivia, linked to Cochabamba. So it appears SACABAMBA is a valid place name and no doubt in 1992 was more rural and had natural landscapes within reach."
Eric Gouda 19/04/23 ... "Hi Geoff, The origin seems to be unclear, but if we can find the Ehlers number we can move forward with it and find the collection data in her collection books at the DBG. We maybe can find out in Renate's books about this locality SE of Cochabamba. If I have a flowering plant at hand, I could describe it, but are the plants available? I can check Renate's herbarium material that I have from here, but I think that is from Colombia only. I will ask Walter Till about it too."

Updated 02/05/23