{ Editors suggestion...
May I suggest the name 'Taurus' ?
Firstly 'Taurus' sounds a bit like 'Terence', who spotted the inconsistencies.
Secondly, to give it an Aussie flavour, 'Taurus' could be said to be an occult bull. :}
Photographs and botanical description of the real T. occulata follows, thanks to Derek and fcbs.
Tillandsia occulta, H. Luther, Selbyana 18 (1): 99-101. 1997
TYPE: MEXICO Sinaloa: along a logging road NE of Panuco, 1100 m. elev. along a small stream, epiphytic on Bombaceae in a pine/oak forest with Tillandsia caput-medusae, T. makoyana and T. pseudosetacea, 6 March 1993, Luther, Schuster, Baker, High & Quick 2950A (Holotype: SEL; Isotype: MEXICO.
A. Tillandsia simulata. Small, cui similis, bracteis florigeris majoribus sparse lepidotisque et sepalis majoribus differt.
Plants growing in small clusters or single, flowering 18-40 cm tall.
Leaves erect to spreading, twelve to twenty-five in number, 15-32 cm long, somewhat succulent, densely cinereous-lepidote, grey-green or tinged reddish.
Leaf sheaths elliptic, 3-5 x 1-2 cm, inflated and forming an elongate pseudobulb, densely ferru-ginous-lepidote especially adaxially.
Leaf blades very narrowly triangular to linear, attenuate, 2-5 mm wide, inconspicuously ribbed, involute, the apex subulate.
Scape erect, 12-20 cm x 2-3 mm, nearly glabrous, green.
Scape bracts subfoliaceous, erect, imbricate, densely cinereous-lepidote, grey-green tinged reddish.
Inflorescence digitate with two to six branches, 4-10 cm long.
Primary bracts elliptic, acute to attenuate, much shorter than the branches, cinereous-lepidote, grey-green tinged red.
Branches erect to spreading, 4-8 cm x 7-11 mm, with one to three sterile basal bracts.
Floral bracts elliptic, acute, 17-23 x 8-10 mm, thin coriaceous, somewhat carinate toward the apex, nerved, sparsely pale-lepidote both adaxially and abaxially, imbricate when fresh, slightly spreading when dried, green or tinged red or purple.
Flowers subsessile, erect, opening in the morning.
Sepals elliptic, acute, 16-20 mm long, the adaxial pair carinate and 8-10 mm connate at the base, thin-coriaceous, slightly nerved, glabrous, green.
Corolla tubular, exceeded by the stamens and style.
Petals ligulate, broadly acute, 33-38 mm long, unappendaged, purple.
Stamens in two unequal series of three, the filaments flattened, purple, the anthers bright yellow. Stigma white.
Capsules slenderly cylindric, 3 cm long.
A collection of Dr. Werner Rauh (Rauh RM-15855 at US) and also cultivated by Renate Ehlers of Stuttgart, Germany is very similar although somewhat smaller. This was collected in 1968 near Acapulco but the plants have not been relocated (Ehlers, pers. comm., 1993) from this area. This collection was misidentified as Tillandsia ortgiesiana E. Morr. ex Mez, a poorly known species originally collected somewhere in Mexico by Benedikt Roezl in 1873. Tillandsia ortgiesiana differs from T. occulta by having less conspicuous subtriangular leaf sheaths and nearly glabrous floral bracts; it is very similar to T. hammeri Rauh in many features and may be conspecific.
Tillandsia occulta seems most similar to the Florida endemic T. simulata but differs from it by having less densely lepidote, longer floral bracts (17-23 mm vs 14-18 mm) and longer sepals (16-20 mm vs 13-16 mm). In addition, the Florida plant has bright-colored, pink floral bracts in contrast to the mostly green floral bracts of T. occulta. Tillandsia simulata was "lost" for many years, incorrectly treated as a synonym of T. bartramii Elliot.
A case could probably be made to relate T. occulta to T. baileyi Rose ex Small of NE Mexico and SE Texas. They share a somewhat pseudobulbous habit, lepidote floral bracts and a very similar floral morphology. I suspect that all of these taxa, and possibly T. exserta L.B.Smith and T. elizabethiae Rauh in addition, represent disjunct relic derivatives of a circum-Gulf of Mexico Tillandsia taxon that had its range fragmented by climate change.
The specific epithet of this tillandsia is based on the fact that it was "unseen" or "hidden" by being misidentified as T. ortgiesiana.