Diagnosis
Tillandsiae bourgaei Baker similis sed spicis 10-14 cm longis 32-35 mm latis, flores 14- 18 continentibus, bracteis floralibus 37-46 mm longis; sepala 38-41 mm longa, discreta; petala purpura 5.8 -6.1 cm longa.
Comparison should have been made with T. zacapanensis which is much closer.

Description :
Rupicolous plant, 60-90 cm high when in flowers, acaulescent;
leaves 40-55 cm long;
sheaths 8-9 cm long, 5-6.5 cm wide, brown, with a basal strip light brown;
limbs 2.5-3.5 cm wide, densely cinereous-lepidote, sharply triangular, little pungent;
scape 60-80 cm long;
lower bracts slightly triangular;
median bracts swelled, linear, superior median sub-swelled, tubular to elliptic, densely lepidote;
inflorescence dense, 1-pinnate, compound, 12-19 pinnate ascendant, in angles between 15-17 degrees,
primary bract sub-coriaceous, shorter than the stem, densely lepidote, not carinate, ovo-lanceolate, 8-12 cm long, 3.5-4.7 cm wide;
spike 10-14 cm long, 3-3.5 cm wide, hooked, sub-convex, ascending, densely lepidote, with 14-18 flowers;
Floral bracts, 37-46 mm long, 17-18 mm wide, ribbed by the extremity about half, shorter than sepals, imbricate, erect, sub-coriaceous and lepidote, glabrous on the underside, tip thin, cucullate;
Flowers sessile, env. 7 cm long,
sepals 38-41 mm long, 6-7 mm wide, chartaceous, glabrous, bent, giving the impression of geniculate petals, tip thin, margin hyaline, posterior sepals carinate and united by 2-3 mm, with a hull, reddish in almost all length, anterior sepals not carinate, reddish ca. 1/3 from the tip to the base;
petals 5.8-6.1 cm long, 7-8 mm wide, violet purple from the tip to half then whitish, glabrous, tip retuse, margin entire;
stamens 6, 12-15 mm, glabrous, 7 to7.4 cm long, purple in colour ca. 1/3 of length, from the tip to the base, then whitish anthers 2.5-3 mm long, 1 mm wide, exserted;
ovary 6-7 mm long, glabrous, style 7-7 .5 cm long, exserted, with 3 branches, stigmas obliquely discoid, ca. 1.5 mm long, viscid.
Capsule 24-26 mm long.

Habitat: grows on cliffs together with Mammillaria columbiana, Hechtia dichroantha, Pistacia mexicain, Lamourouxia viscosa, Alvaradoa amorphoides, Tillandsia recurvata and Agave pachycentra. Flowers from November until January.

Distribution: known only for the type locality and the nearby cliffs in the municipality of Camotan, Chiquimula. 800-1000 m. in alt.

Paratypes: GUATEMALA, Chiquimula, Municipio Camotan. 12 dec. 2007 (fl.) M. Veliz MV 19460, 19461, 19462, 19463 (fr.) with T. Calderon and J. Lopez, 18 nov. 2009. M. Veliz with L. Velasquez, MV 21050; 30 jan. 2011. (f1.) M. Veliz, M. Veliz 22605; 16 mar. 2011. M. Veliz with L. Velasquez, MV 22804, 22805, 22811, 22812, 22813, 22814 (AGUAT, BIGU, R MEXU, MO, USCG).

Tillandsia carrilloi Veliz & U. Feldhoff present symmetrical, free or connate sepals, exserted stamens, erected petals to the anthesis, the limbs of leaves ligulate to shortly triangular, and thus belongs to the subgenus Tillandsia. This species is close to Tillandsia bourgaei Baker (Smith & Downs, 1977; Davidse, Sousa & Chater, 1994), but it differs from this, with a spike 10-14 cm long, 32-35 mm wide and produce 14-18 flowers (versus spike 7-9 cm long, 20-30 cm wide and with 10-14 flowers), floral bracts of 37-46 mm long (versus floral bracts 25-30 mm long), sepals 38-41 mm long (versus sepals about 30 mm long) and petals of purple colour, 5.8-6.1 cm long (versus petals of yellowish-green colour and 4 cm long).

Etymology: the name of this new species is dedicated to Emeritus professor Jose Ernesto Carrillo (1927-1997), maestro and botanist instructor in Guatemala.

Subject: Re: T carrilloi
From: Renate Ehlers
To: Derek Butcher
Date: 08 Oct 2013
Hi Derek, thanks for the nice photos.
If I have time in wintertime I will again have a look on my herbarium plants of 'Calavera' - carrilloi.
The plants look different to T. zacapanensis, but the inflorescence is very similar to T. zacapanensis.
But this is up to Uwe Feldhoff who discovered the plant. I only did not agree with him that he made the differential-diagnosis against T. bourgaei.
Regards, Renate

From Chris Larson
I’m not sure where there is confusion with these 2 plants. Peter Tristram & I have both from different sources and they are so different, both vegetatively and with the arrangement of the bracts – we are wondering how they can be considered the same, as Uncle Derek seemed to assume at one time.

Peter has flowered several zacapanensis always with a similar spike to the one (centre) in the first photo attached – and I have attached a second photo of 2 more that he flowered. I have only flowered one which looks identical to the one in Peter’s photos. On the other hand, Peter has not flowered carrilloi – so he has no photos. But I have flowered 1 (the one in the photos I sent to you) & have another starting to spike – this is only just starting to be visible, and I think will be at least 4 months before it flowers. I cannot see how they can be mistaken - the shape of the bracts & the nature of the branching make them distinctly different species.

I will be at the nursery on Monday and I will take a couple of photos of the foliage of both plants to show the difference. T. carrilloi has grey leaves – the colour of circinnatoides (without the lines), whereas zacapanensis is a very silver plant. T. carrilloi has thin brittle leaves, whereas T. zacapanensis has broad, silver, less brittle leaves.

From Derek Butcher – The problem with Chris's comments is that we know very little about provenance of these plants.