Tillandsia peiranoi
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Tillandsia peiranoi
Ken Woods 11/04.
John Olsen 11/11.
Ian Hook 07/11.
Peter Tristram 12/14.
Peter Tristram ... "Many years ago this species was readily available but over the years I lost all of mine, regaining a few from Germany. Finally I have remembered to photograph one in bloom. This is a very small species, like a tiny edithae in shape but a paleacea in bloom. I grow it like the rest of the CAM Tills and other broms – dry at night with watering in the morning occasionally. It is under cover naturally as I do live in a potentially very wet area."
Stephen Haines 11/20


Tillandsia peiranoi Castellanos, Lilloa 2: 14, pl. 2. 1938.
Desc from S&D p868-9
Plant caulescent, flowering 20 cm long; stem simple or few-branched, 10 cm long; roots present.
Leaves densely polystichous, 2-5 cm long, covered with cinereous subap¬pressed scales; Sheaths broadly ovate, large but obscure, many-nerved with broad thin margins;
Blades erect to recurving, more or less contorted, narrowly triangular, pungent, 5 mm wide, nerved.
Scape terminal, erect, very slender, glabrous;
Scape-bracts laxly imbricate, lanceolate, acuminate, thin, nerved, lepidote.
Inflorescence simple or with 1-2 small suberect lateral branches;
Primary bracts like the floral bracts, much shorter than the spikes; terminal spike linear, 6 cm long, 6-flowered;
Rhachis slender, flexuous.
Floral bracts erect, slightly less than twice as long as the internodes and exposing most of the rhachis, elliptic, 12 mm long, slightly shorter than the sepals, thin, nerved, ecarinate, glabrous;
Pedicels short.
Sepals free, elliptic, acute, 10-12 mm long, thin, centrally nerved with broad nerveless margins, glabrous, the posterior carinate;
Petals 16 mm long, pale blue to nearly white, the blade suborbicular;
Stamens deeply included, exceeding the pistil; anthers linear, 2.5 mm long.
Capsule prismatic, beaked, 15 mm long, 5 mm in diameter.
Type. Peirano s n (holotype LIL, GH photo, isotype EA), Quebrada de Las Conchas, Guachipas, Salta, Argentina, 27 Nov 1933.
DISTRIBUTION. Known from the type locality only.
ARGENTINA. SALTA: Quebrada de Las Conchas, Santa Rosa, Guachipas, 20 Oct 1948, L. B. Smith 4654 (GH, US); Skottsberg s n (GB); 14 Mar 1958, Cabrera & Marchionni 13077 (LP, US).

Tillandsia peiranoi Castellanos var. alba J Rutschmann Trop. Subtrop. Pflanzenwelt 58: 32-5 1986
Plant forming a lax clump, single plants with long stem, flowering to 20cm high, living stem 7-10 cm long, with numerous, densely polystichous arranged leaves
Sheaths distinct, 1.5-2 cm long, 1.5 cm wide, same color as the blade, glabrous above the base, underneath densely appressed scaled.
Blade narrow-triangular, acute, to 5 cm long, above the sheath 12 mm wide, erect, strongly canaliculate, weakly succulent, underneath weakly nerved, densely appressed silver-grey lepidote, scales weakly asymmetrically with green center.
Scape 3-4 cm long, thin, 1.5 mm wide, brownish green, glabrous, shiny.
Scape bracts: the bottom ones subfoliate, but much smaller than the leaves, that upper ones haave a long blade, short tipped,as long or shorter than the internodes, enclosing the scape, papery when dry and then nerved, scattered lepidote.
Inflorescence laxly bipinnate, to 11 cm long and 2 cm wide, with 4-6 becoming erect, to 6 cm long side spike.
Rhachis flattened at the side, greenish brown, glabrous; Internodes 1.5-1 cm long.
Primary bracts narrow lanceolate, acute, straw-like when dry, nerved, scattered lepidote, many long as the sterile basal section of the side spike.
Side Spikes with a 5-10 mm high sessile, sloping, keeled peduncle bract, narrow linear, with 2-4,( -6),flowers with upright, thin weakly flexuous, olive-green rhachis.
Floral bracts narrow lanceolate, sharp acuminate, 8-11 mm long, 4 mm wide, ecarinate, but strongly nerved, smooth at first, olive-green, dries like parchment, scattered lepidote at the top, little shorter than the sepals, with a membraneous edge.
Flower to 14 mm long, 3 mm wide Scentless, open for several days
Sepals ecarinate, narrow –lanceolate, acute, to 10 mm long, 4 mm wide, approximately 3 mm high connate, greenish brownish, brown when dry, glabrous.
Petals white, with blunt, 4 x 3mm large, plattes.
Style & Stamens well enclosed. Filaments white with yellow anthers, which exceed the short style.
HOLOTYPUS: B. G. H. 65933, leg.. Dr. J. Rutschmann, Basel, Switzerland, RU/AR 85/1, in the Herb. Inst. System. Bot Univ. Heidelberg (HEID).
Habitat: growing on rocks ( sedimentary), 7 km in the lower half of Cabra Corall at the Rio Pasaje (Prov). Salta, Argentina, 800-900 M

The two varieties are:
var. peiranoi
Single plant with 3-5 cm long stem
Sheath to 10 mm long, 8 mm wide, oval;
Leaf blade about 2 mm long, strongly bent, greenish brown, underneath strongly nerved Inflorescence usually simple;
Petal pale violet.
Quebrada de las Conchas, Santa Rosa, 1200-1400 m, Argentina.

var. alba J. Rutschmann
Single plant with 7-10 cm stem.
Sheath to 2 cm long, 15 mm wide;
Leaf blade usually upright, to 5 cm long, underneath less nerved, very densely lepidote silvery white.
Inflorescence usually bipinnate with 4-6 side spikes
Petals white
Cabra Corall, Rio Pasaje, 800-900 m, Argentina.

Updated 05/12/20