Tillandsia x guelzii
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Tillandsia x guelzii
See "Uncle Derek Says" on fcbs, for this plant's links with Tillandsia pucaraensis.
Treated as a Natural Hybrid in latest Taxon list.
See also images for T. pucaraensis.

Peter Tristram 06/09.
Eric Gouda 11/15.
George Nieuwenhoven 05/18

Derek Butcher ... "George: No comment from the east coast so it must be rare over there. Mind you it was the South Aussies who kept asking the Germans awkward questions about it. So much so it is now treated as a natural hybrid. So it is up to you to self set seed and grow it on, so we can suggest putative parents!"
Chris Larson ... "Derek: The plot thickens. I have followed this for a while as you know.
It is a tough one for me (grows easily), and I did admire George’s wonderful photos. I flower this one regularly.
A question : what is the view on parentage of the “hybrid”? Especially the Peruvian form? But also the Bolivian one?
Another question: What is the current view on Isley’s plant? Still going around as T. pucaraensis ? I keep on getting a verbal that it is not a species, but what is the view of the taxonomists? The details on the disc, although informative, seem to be sort of circular in nature – rather than being close to a view."
Derek Butcher ... "When Walter till and Eric Gouda agree on a course of action I stay out of the argument. As for the putative parents of a 'natural' hybrid this is usually decided on other plants in the vicinity but what is the vicinity? We do not know where Isley got his plant. Is it the same as Tropiflora or Birdrock? We know there was great confusion in Germany.
Have you ever set self set seed? Could this be a hint of hybridity? Has anyone done a pollen count? The number of plants around the world suggests a grex rather than clonal propagation which infers seed propagation sometime in the past.
I think it prudent to let sleeping dogs lie."
Tony Tucker 10/19
Rob Bower 11/20
Tony Tucker ... "A first bloom for me, ex Chris Larson. Thank you (Tillandsia discussion group) for the education regarding x guelzii or pucaraensis, if you prefer. Not wishing to stoke the debate further, I'm just enjoying the bloom."
Rob Bower 04/22 a 2nd form, flowering now.



Tillandsia guelzii W. Rauh , Trop. Subtrop. Pflanz. 65:55-58. 1988
Tillandsia pucaraensis R Ehlers Sp nova. Die Bromelie 1: 9-10. 1989 See Gouda/Till 2013
2018 Is this a hybrid (didisticha x pohliana) awaiting comment from Vasquez
subgen. Anoplophytum

Translated from the German by Butcher
PLANT Growing in large clumps, stemless to short stemmed, flowering to 30-35cm high. Leaves numerous in a dense rosette, 20cm high, 25cm wide.
LEAF SHEATH Longish, to 2.5cm long, 2cm wide, indistinct, both sides with dense appressed scales, lighter than the blade which is 12-17cm long and 2-2.5cm wide next to the sheath, long attenuate, rolled inwards, outside weakly keeled, both sides with dense silver-white appressed scales, scales asymmetric, the edges with winged scales.
SCAPE Erect to mildly bent over, to 15cm long, 5mm wide, as long or shorter than the leaf rosette, densely covered by the stem bracts, the bottom stem bracts leaflike with spreading out blades, the upper ones erect with a short tip, with pink sheath densely appressed scaled.
INFLORESCENCE Bipinnate.
PRIMARY BRACTS short tipped, 2.5cm long, weakly nerved, carmine-red, the bottom greenish.
SIDE SPIKES 1 - 2, strongly reduced, sessile to short stalked, 2-3 (6) flowered, often only a single flower,
CENTRE SPIKE to 8.5cm long, 1.5cm wide, lancelike, complanate, to 15 flowered.
FLOWER Relatively small, subsessile, beginning dense, later lax upright, green, flat edged, naked, flexuous rhachis is visible.
FLOWER BRACT Distichous, long-elliptic, ca 15mm long, blunt to acuminate, not keeled, the bottom greenish, scarcely scattered lepidote at the tip, when fresh indistinctly nerved, a little bit shorter than the sepals, membranous edges.
SEPALS Pale red, membranous, the posterior ones lightly keeled, with the base free, to 15mm long, 6mm wide, bare, not nerved.
PETALS Tongue-shaped, light violet to white, with bent back platte, 15-20mm long, 3mm wide.
STAMENS & STYLE Included. Filament in the upper third strongly pleated. Style with white lobes a little longer than the anthers.
OVARY green.
HOLOTYPE B.G. H. 54 925, leg. D Muhr, s.n. (Jan 1984), HEID
HABITAT Actual location unknown, Prov. Jujuy.

Differs from T. vernicosa in:-
1 - Upper scape bracts acuminate not rounded.
2 - Side spikes greatly reduced often to a single flower.
3 - Insertion of the base of the flower seems to be in a spiral.
4 - Floral bracts at anthesis laxly inserted.
5 - Rhachis strongly angular-complanate and visible.
6 - Petal blade spreading not erect.

T. guelzii was known as T. ixioides Grisebach by Mrs. D. Muhr, Jujuy, Argentina, and the Bromeliad nurseryman Gulz at Bad Vilbel. The plant was therefore named after grower Hans Gulz. It was sent in February 1984 to the Botanical garden of the University of Heidelberg where it already has flowered several times. The bipinnate inflorescence is characterized by the basal side spikes being strongly inhibited in their development, reaching at most 1-2 cm long, usually only 2 - 3 -, rarely up to 6-flowered, often reduced to a single flower, and then the base of the end spike becomes as though spiral flowering,( fig. 36, left and middle). This behavior is constant and could be seen in several successive flowering periods on different plants.



Tillandsia pucaraensis R Ehlers Sp nova Die Bromelie 1: 9-10. 1989
A T. didisticha (E. Morren) Baker, cui similis, inflorescentia simplicissima bracteis florigeris coriaceis, leviter carinatis, sublaevibus, latioribus, dorso angulato-curvatis, pro parte subglabris, filamentis rectis, non plicatis, a T. lorentziana Grisebach foliis appresso-lepidotis, inflorescentia simplice, bracteis florigeris latioribus rigidioribus, petalis minoribus, filamentis non plicatis differt. T. pucaraensis membrum subgeneris Allardtia et versimiliter T. cauligera Mez affinis est. Ab ea characteribus sequentibus differt: foliis succulentis appresso-lepidotis perrigidis, caule absenti, scapo inflorescentiae multo breviore, bracteis florigeris pro parte subglabris, petalis albis.
Holotypus: Peruvia, Depto. Cajamarca, valle fluminis Rio Chamaya, prope pagum Pucara, 1200 m s.m., epiphytica in arboribus, 1eg. R. Ehlers P 7953 (WU), julio 1979.
Patria et distributio: Peruvia septentrionalis, Depto. Cajamarca, adhuc inventa solum loco typi.

Translated from the German by Butcher
PLANT- Epiphytic, very short stemmed, flowering to 30cm high, single or in groups.
LEAF - Numerous, rosette, erect, the outside ones widening out, moreover some parts secund, very stiff, both sides with dense appressed grey scales.
LEAF SHEATH - Indistinct, triangular, 25mm wide, inperceptibly merges with the blade, the edges strongly bent, at the bottom almost translucent.
LEAF BLADE - Thin lance-like, long acuminate, to 16cm long, 12-14mm wide (above the sheath) green, yet silver grey because of dense appressed indument on both sides, the edges bent and with very small erect asymmetrical scales.
SCAPE - Erect or bent, to 10cm long, ca 3mm diameter, naked.
SCAPE BRACT - Densely imbricate, longer than the internode, extensely cover the stem and adjacent to (stem therefore not visible), longish elliptic, the bottom with longer blades, the upper with short tips, then similar to the flower bracts, thin membranous, nerved, inner naked, outside with dense grey scales, pink.
INFLORESCENCE - Much exceeds the leaves, simple, drawn together on the sides, 7-9cm long, 10-12mm wide with 8-10 (-17) almost sessile, scentless flowers. (the bottom 2 or 3 seem to be polystichous, the upper distichous).
RHACHIS - Thin and bent, edged, naked, in a fresh state totally covered, when dry visible.
FLOWER BRACT - 12-17mm long, to 14mm wide in some cases but mainly ca. Smm wide, broad oval, tipped, red, leathery, in a fresh state bare, when dry weakly nerved, not keeled or (particularly the lower) weak and double keeled, the inner naked, outside of the lower ones dense and wholely covered, the upper ones and tips laxly scaled, the lower ones almost as long as the sepals, the upper ones 1-2mm shorter.
SEPAL - with the exception of the tips, enclosed by the flower bracts (12-) 13-15mm long, ca 6mm wide, 2-3mm high, uniformly joined together, acuminate, red, at the base green, naked, more or less nerved, thin membranous, edges translucent, the back pair keeled.
PETAL - White, making an erect tube, thin tongue shaped, the tips bent outwards and the whole of the edges weakly wavy. 16-22mm long, 4mm wide.
STAMENS - Deeply enclosed in the throat, filaments shorter than the style, white 8mm long, flat thin, straight, not pleated, 1mm wide.
Anthers 3-4mm long, 0.5mm wide, fixed at the bottom, the bottom wide the tips tapering, yellow, firmly stuck together.
OVARY - Green, oval, or almost globose, to 4mm long and 3mm diameter. Style 11mm long, erect or lightly spreading, papillose.
HOLOTYPE – leg R Ehlers P7953 (WU), July 1979
HABITAT - North PERU, Dept. Cajamarca, Rio Chamaya valley near Pucara, 1200m, epiphytic on trees.

DIFFERS FROM T. DIDISTICHA IN THAT
1 - Simple inflorescence and leathery flower bracts
2 - Bracts lightly carinate, almost smooth, wider, the back angled to curved, for the most part subglabrous.
3 - Filaments erect not plicate.

DIFFERS FROM T. LORENTZIANA IN THAT
1 - Leaves appress lepidote.
2 - Inflorescence simple.
3 - Floral bracts wider and stiffer.
4 - Petals smaller.
5 - Filaments not plicate.

DIFFERS FROM T. CAULIGERA
1 - Very rigid, succulent appressed lepidote leaves.
2 - Stem absent.
3 - Scape much shorter.
4 - Floral bracts for the most part subglabrous.
5 - Petals white.

In July 1979 I drove with 3 friends in northern Peru over the Olmos Valley towards Rio Chamaya. In this area, Prof. Rauh on earlier travels had discovered many interesting Tillandsias, including T. cacticola and T. hildae. How small the world for plant collectors sometimes is, on this remote and poor dust road. When we were there collecting gloriously flowering T. cacticola and T. latifolia var. divaricata, we saw a landrover on a mountain road. We went down quickly and to our delight and amazement, it was Prof. Rauh with Wolfgang Krahn from Stuttgart and Klaus von Bismarck – of course the greeting was great.
Two days later, near Pucara on the Rio Chamaya on high trees on the river, I collected tillandsias, including this newly described T. pucaraensis.



Tillandsia pucaraensis/guelzii at August 2005 by Butcher
Many of you will not have heard of these names, seen the plants, or have them in your collection, but plants under these names are around.
Both Len Colgan & myself, here in Adelaide, Australia, have this plant from David Sheumack, a Tillandsia collector from Sydney, and late in 1995 the plant flowered in Len's collection and I had the privilege of modestly examining it under the microscope.
Tillandsia pucaraensis from Pucara in Northern Peru had been named by Renate Ehlers in Die Bromelie 1/1989 together with a coloured photograph, but I had difficulty in matching Len’s plant with the name. The main problem was that the spike was fairly open and you could see the centre stem or rhachis. The description says the rhachis is not visible at flowering but is visible as the inflorescence dries out.
My difficulty in linking David Sheumack's plant with T. pucaraensis meant we had to contact him, who in turn contacted Pamela Koide of Bird Rock Tropicals from Carlsbad, California, who was his supplier. Pamela advised she had originally got her plant T321 while in Germany from Rauh in Heidelberg, and it had T. creseus, Rauh (Peru) on the label. As yet we do not know the significance of this name. It does not appear to be a place name and it is not in Stearn's "Botanical Latin”!. Anyway, when Renate Ehlers was in California she saw this plant and thought it could be her T. pucaraensis. Now I was really worried!
Needless to say, our next contact was with Renate Ehlers and things started to get really complicated. Both Renate Ehlers and Dr Walter Till, as long ago as 1989, believed T. pucaraensis was the same as a newly named T. guelzii by Rauh, only his plant was allegedly from Northern Argentina (just get out your Atlas to see how far this is from Nth. Peru!) Rauh has maintained that his ONE clump of plants came from Dorothea Muhr and must have been collected somewhere in the Province of Jujuy, and suggested that Ehlers had mixed collection data and the actual plants in her own collection in Germany. From the original description we see that Rauh did not get his plant direct from Muhr but from Guelz, hence the name but the plant originally had T. ixioides on the label. The 1979 Heidelberg Incoming Plant register shows 54925 in a list of plants received from Guelz as Till. ixioides which was amended to read guelzii Rauh. This is the plant that Rauh used to describe T. guelzii. In the same list there are plants that Guelz had got from Blass who, in turn, had got them from Strobel. In other words, collection numbers although important, have been forgotten and there is much plant movement without documentation! Who is to know that the T. ixioides that came from Guelz was not in fact a K192b (see below) that Guelz had got from Blass!!?
Living plants under the number 54925 are noted as T. guelzii by Elvira Gross so Heidelberg Bot Gardens are only growing T. guelzii. Offsets from 54925 went to Lydia Kohres and she (? on the advice of others) changed the name to T. pucaraensis before selling under this name. This is how Len Colgan got a plant called T. pucaraensis which should be grown under the name T. guelzii to link with the Heidelberg collection.
The only differences I can find from the original descriptions between the main contenders are:-
.
guelzii
pucaraensis
T321 aff. pucaraensis (from Pam Koide)
Rhachis visible at flowering
Yes
no
Yes
Posterior sepals
Free
Joined 2-3mm
Joined l0mm
Stamen Filament
Plicate (creased)
Straight
Wavy

As you can see, it becomes a matter of judgement by taxonomists as to what prevails. Where does T. aff. pucaraensis fit in? Are T. guelzii and T. pucaraensis synonymous? If so, then what has precedence? Here T. pucaraensis wins out because it was actually published first.

We now go back to 1964! In that year Wolfgang Krahn did a collecting trip from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz in Bolivia when his main interest was Cactaceae. It is noted that numbers 192 and 193 were Tillandsia and collected at km305 at 1560m. No.192a and c were identified as Diaphoranthema but 192b remained as an unknown. No.193 was identified as T. didisticha.
All these plants went to Alfred Blass. Some were further distributed including 192b. It is thought that some went to Renate Ehlers (she can’t remember, possibly because these were her ‘cactus’ days), Rauh at Heidelberg and the Linz Bot Garden. It is from the Linz Bot Garden that we get our clue because they have a specimen marked K192b. This plant has not been dissected to my knowledge but had been identified as T. guelzii by Lieselotte Hromradnik and only recently has she changed her name to T. pucaraensis. Note that this plant was in the collection of Blass for many years and could well have been the plant that got to Rauh instead of the alleged T. ixioides. If this is the case then it would make the type locality in Bolivia instead of Argentina. Dissection of K192b would be a great help in solving this mystery.
Let us now look at plants collected in Peru. In 1996 Butcher and Colgan bought plants called T. pucaraensis from Isley in the USA. Colgan flowered his plant which he says is the same as his alias ‘T. guelzii’ from Lydia but the plant has since died. Butcher’s plant did not die but has NOT yet flowered! At the time of purchase, after intense questioning, Paul Isley said the plant came from Peru where he had a collector (not Knize) operating. It seemed to be a bit hush hush! He knew no other detail. There is no link with the Koide plant T321. The identification of this T. pucaraensis could only have come from the Ehlers naming because T. guelzii was thought to be a different plant from a different area.
The holotype for T. pucaraensis P7953 was found in 1979 in Peru but not described until 1989. It is not certain which plants may have been distributed elsewhere – for example Heidelberg Bot Garden but as far as we can trace there are no specimens living at 2005. Heidelberg Incoming plant register for probably 1979 shows 54925a Till. pucaraensis Ehlers as a later added entry (?when added). But no plant 54925a is surviving at 2005 at Heidelberg.
In 1979 when T. pucaraensis was found, Renate's group did cross paths with a group comprising Krahn and Rauh. In 1979 we know that Krahn collected in Peru and brought back six Tillandsia/Vriesea for Heidelberg. One of these, WK 595 became Tillandsia krahnii but another one called 50882 Till. nov. spec.? WK666, 1600m., L. Aricapampa is not alive as at 2005. Can this be linked to Renate’s collection in the same year?
While there appears to be some justification that these plants are synonymous the problem of distant habitats still remains. It is odd that neither taxon has been collected since. Is it a hybrid? Some say it has links to T. didisticha which is found in Bolivia and not in Peru and was used as a differential by Renate for her T. pucaraensis. Others take the side of Rauh in seeing similarities with T. vernicosa. Will it ever be found again in the wild?
This problem has been caused mainly by the length of time it took from collection of the plant to formal description. We know how easy it is to get labels mixed up in Botanic gardens and plant nurseries. I certainly know that I am guilty in mislabelling my own plants only to correct my mistake at a later date. So often are you doing a job and get distracted. To err is human! However, mislabelling is still rare and for it to happen twice and link all to a single collection (K192b) by Krahn in 1964 is very hard to imagine indeed. It would be so easy to consider T. pucaraensis and T. guelzii as synonymous if their collection areas were close to each other but to my mind the jury is still out.
I leave it to the academic taxonomists to make any formal judgements regarding synonymy.
I would like to thank Renate Ehlers, Lieselotte Hromradik, Pam Koide, David Sheumack, Timm Stolten, Paul Isley and Len Colgan for their indulgence and help.


Updated 02/06/22