See T. calocephala page for a discussion of the aff. T. churinensis in Australia, from Chris Larson.

Adam Bodzioch 06/20 aff. churinensis

Type specimen Renate Ehrlers

Chris Larson 09/21 aff. churinensis

Adam Bodzioch ... "First flowering for me is this Till I got from Chris Larson. The tag says that Chris collected it South of Ayacucho in Peru. Mine seems to be happy growing in a small hydroponic pot with bark only."
Alfonso Trudu ... "Mine flowered and then died. Maybe it's too warm and humid in Brisbane."
Chris Larson ... "Another from the good old days of eco-pillaging. I only grabbed a couple of these from a roadside cutting just up the hill on the main road south of Ayacucho (30 to 50 km?) heading toward Cusco. The GPS machine had just packed up. Ayacucho is at 2750m altitude - so this one was over 3000 I'd say.
Both Len Colgan and Peter Tristram also found it in Renate's collection through a commercial supplier. I gave Renate the collection data. Still not described."

Chris Larson 09/21 ... "T.calocephala was collected at the same site as T. aff churinensis that a few of you have - back in 1998. A little to the south of Ayacucho - just after my GPS machine broke down. There were only these 2 plants at this site."

Dale Dixon 04/21 aff. churinensis

Dale Dixon ... "T. aff. churinensis, from Peru, is a putative new species collected by Chris Larson from a roadside cutting just up the hill on the main road 30-50km south of Ayacucho heading toward Cusco. Ayacucho is at 2750m altitude and Chris estimates that the plants were collected at c. 3000m altitude.
The 'aff.' preceding the specific epithet indicates that the plant is considered a potential new and undescribed species that has an affinity to, but is not identical to, the named species. The Latin word 'affinis', abbreviated as 'aff.' can be translated as 'closely related to' or 'akin to'.
I first noticed the inflorescence developing in November 2020. It's taken so long to flower that I thought the inflorescence had aborted. Although small, it's a stunning flower. Look closely at the deep purple flowers and you can see that the petals are doubled. My plant is suspended on aluminium craft wire and hung high in the south west corner of the #TillHouse. Some collectors have had varying success with this taxon in southeast Queensland, with some reporting that the plants have died after flowering."

PLANT - Long stemmed, flowering to 30cm high. Leaves numerous, densely polystichous, to 10cm high and 15cm wide rosette.
LEAF SHEATH - Not clearly evident, 1.5cm long, 1.5cm wide, both sides pale brown lepidote.
LEAF BLADE - Thin triangular, in a long reflexed, thin tapering tip, to 10cm long, part near the sheath 1.5cm wide, both sides densely silver-grey lepidote.
SCAPE - Erect to bent, shorter than the top leaf rosette, ca 5cm long, densely covered by the leaflike scape bracts which have a longer sheath and more reflexed silver-grey blade.
INFLORESCENCE - Bent downwards, laxly bipinnate, 8cm long, 3cm wide, with ca 6 erect to sticking out spikes (including the top spike), the bottom 2 (-3) spirally, the upper laxly distichous in a side view.
PRIMARY BRACTS - Half as long as the spike, reddis.h, densely scaled, with 2cm long, lcm wide sheath, short tipped.
SPIKE - Short and thin stemmed, thin linear, complanate, 4-4.5cm long, 0.8 to lcm wide, 5-8 flowered.
FLORAL BRACTS - Densely imbricate, (the rhachis of the spike not visible at anthesis), sterile near base, the fertile ones 2cm long and 0.6cm wide, carinate towards the sharp tip, not keeled at the base, membranous, scattered lepidote to naked, pale reddish to brownish green at the bottom, smooth (strongly nerved when dry), longer than the sepals.
SEPALS - 1.8cm long, the posterior sharply keeled, delicate, pale green, dull, almost free.
PETAL - 2.5cm long,thin tongue shaped, with delicate, reflexed carmine-red platte, whitish towards the base.
STAMENS & STYLE - Deeply enclosed. Filament plicate.
HABITAT - On rocks, Rio Huaura Valley, Churin, 1700m, Central PERU.

DIFFERS FROM T. latifolia in that:
1 - Plant long stemmed.
2 - Leaves silver grey lepidote.
3 - Inflorescence with curved downward more or less 6 erect spreading spikes, narrow lineal, 5cm long, lcm wide.
4 - Floral bracts smooth, not nerved, almost naked.
5 - Sepals free at base.

Differing from T. churinensis:
plant bigger,
infl. bigger, to 17 cm long not only 8 cm, nearly erect not benched, all spikes polystich, also the apical ones, internodes between the spikes bigger,
Rhachis visible
petals no blade.