Tillandsia polita
Click thumbnails for full size, scaled to a new window.
Tillandsia polita
Natural hybrid of rotundata X rodrigueziana.
| JBS. |
Derek Butcher. |
Peter Franklin. |
From Derek Butcher's Talk at Cairns 2008....
"Tillandsia polita has had a chequered career. It was described by Lyman Smith in 1941 but Gardner in the 1980’s found that it appeared to be a hybrid between T. rotundata and T. rodrigueziana and that much back crossing seemed to be happening. In the 1970’s Rolly Reilly and his son-in-law Greg Stewart were busy sowing Tillandsia seed and most of us at that time accepted that Tillandsias did not hybridise easily and did not question too much the name that came with the seedling. I was aware that T. polita was considered to be a natural hybrid so why were all the plants that I had seen from the Reilly/Stewart stable looking alike admittedly with a bit of T. rodigueziana flavour. Needless to say, Harry was advised of my findings and it was a bit of a surprise when in 2000 T. polita appeared on the species list. In 2003 Renate Ehlers named a variety as T. elongata."
See DD1008. Natural Hybrid Talk for more details.
Updated 26/10/08
