Tillandsia Skineri
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Tillandsia Skineri
Tillandsia latifolia variant. Plant diameter 350mm, height 300mm, leaf blade 165 mm long. Length of flower spike 190 mm before offset. Registered by Derek Butcher. Origin: Peru/Australia.
Ray Clark 10/18


Tillandsia ‘Skineri’
By Derek Butcher, October 2018.
A plant with this name was imported in 1984 from Karel Knize (Peru) as stated in his plant list. No further detail was given and it was not until later issues that it was linked to T. latifolia. Later issues spelt it as ‘Skinneri’ but there was no indication as to whom this might be. It grew well under my conditions and produced normal offsets but never flowered. Over time I must have disposed of some of the offsets while getting the recipient to promise to tell me when it flowered. Nothing was reported! In my current downsizing I gave one such offset to Ray Clark in 2017. Because of the change in conditions or Ray’s great husbandry it decided to flower in 2018 together with a pseudo-viviparous offset. Ray reports plant diameter 350mm, height 300mm, leaf blade 165 mm long, length of flower spike 190 mm before offset. Latifolia means wide leaves but here the leaves are more narrow than usual and a more apt cultivar name could be ‘Skinny’! There is also the thought as to whether it is linked to T. latifolia or the recently promoted from varietal status T. divaricata.
It is of interest here that Andrew Flower in NZ reports a similar looking plant that he grew from seed in 1991 under KK144 Tillandsia latifolia 'Cieneguilla'. In the same seed list we see KK43 for Tillandsia latifolia ‘Skineri’ so we can assume that Karel saw differences.
To qualify for a cultivar name it must be under cultivation and not just sitting in one person’s collection. Despite the efforts of Ray Clark no others in the discussion group has admitted ownership of this plant so I was rather loth to register the name. The good news is that Justin Lee is now an owner of said plant so I am going ahead in putting ‘Skineri’ in the BCR.

Updated 03/01/18