Tillandsia exserta Click thumbnails for full size, scaled to a new window.
Tillandsia exserta
Ken Woods 08/04
Ken Woods 08/04 - Large form
Ray Clark 04/16
Ray Clark ... "I picked this little beauty up from Derek about 4 years ago and it’s doing very nicely. Grown quite high up in the shade house exposed to most of the elements, obviously reasonably hardy." Derek Butcher ... "But not easy to actually flower." Chris Larson ... "It is a long time between flowerings for this one here in Melbourne.
This looks like the small clone that seemed to originate in SA. Both small and large form are well worth having in any collection.
Recently I flowered a seedling of T. exserta ex-Isley. But to me it looks like some foreign pollen must have snuck in."
Chris Larson 03/20
Peter Tristram 08/22
Chris Larson ... "Another in flower at the moment. Pedro says it is T. exserta 'Giant' ex-Isley - but he was thinking it was probably a hybrid. I would have to agree. But it is nice." Peter Tristram ... "I bought this large form if T. exserta from Tropiflora back when importing from Europe and the Americas was relatively easy and legal. It did well for me in my Till tunnel at the northern end and this one bloomed not long back. Unfortunately I haven't successfully harvested hybrid seed from it as pods had always dispersed their contents when I was away. Quite a few collectors would have this one too." Tillandsia exserta Fernald, Bot. Gaz. 20: 537. 1895. Tillandsia cinerea Mez, DC. Monogr. Phan. 9: 679. 1896. Type. Agiabampo, Sonora, Mexico, Palmer 805 (GH, K, US), 1890.
Desc from S&D p927-8 Plant stemless, flowering 2-7 dm high. Leaves many in a dense rosette, to 3 dm long, covered with coarse pale cinereous subspreading scales; Sheaths ovate, conspicuous; Blades coiled-recurving, very narrowly triangular, long-attenuate, involute, 3-4 mm in diameter at base. Scape erect, 3 mm in diameter, glabrous; Scape-bracts erect, involute, imbricate, the lower foliaceous, the upper elliptic, acute or apiculate, densely appressed-lepidote. Inflorescence simple or subdigitately compound to 18 cm long; Primary bracts like the upper scape-bracts, much shorter than the axillary branches; Axes slender, glabrous; Spikes erect or slightly divergent, linear-lanceolate, acute, 5-14 cm long, 8-15 mm wide, subsessile with a few sterile bracts at base or the terminal spike sometimes stipitate, complanate, dense, about 12-flowered; Rhachis angled, straight. Floral bracts erect, densely imbricate, broadly ovate, acute, 2 cm long, distinctly shorter than the sepals at anthesis, over 3 times as long as the internodes, straight, ecarinate, subcoriaceous, usually even except near apex, densely appressed-lepidote, often red; Flowers subsessile, erect. Sepals linear-1anceolate, acute, to 26 mm long, coriaceous, even, the posterior carinate and about half-connate; Petals erect, linear, acute, 35 mm long, violet; Stamens and pistil exserted. Capsule slenderly cylindric, acute, 3 cm long. Type. Lamb 381 (holotype GH, isotype DS), Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico, 2 Jan 1895. DISTRIBUTION. Epiphytic in dry forests and thickets, 10-45 m alt, northwestern Mexico
MEXICO. SONORA: Navojoa, Cerro de Bayajori, 11 Apr 1948, Gentry 7959 (US); Fort Peon, Empalme, 4 Jan 1950, Dressier 1094 (MO). SINALOA: Mazatlin, 31 Mar 1910, Rose, Standley & Russell 13793 (NY, US); Nov 1926, Ortega 6477 (DS, GH, US); Nov 1934, 7452 (MO); 1926, Reiche 372 (M); Altata, 1903, Purpus s n (UC); Culican, 10 Oct 1904, Brandegee s n (UC); 1 Dec 1944, Gentry 7117 (GH, US); Topolobampo, 23 Mar 1910, Rose, Standley & Russell 13345 (F, GH, NY, US); Guadalupe, 18 Apr 1910, Rose, Standley & Russell 14755 (US); Villa Union, Dec 1921, Ortega 4351 (US); El Norote, 1925, Ortega 5929 (US); .'La Noria," 13 Oct 1925; Mexia 337 112 (MO, UC); Los Mochis, San Bias, 30 Jan 1927, Jones 23458 (MO, POM); La Cruz, 18 Dec 1968, Rudd, Bauer & Fox 3031 (US).
