13716 - Bromeliads (Wild) - 2018-03-16
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Tillandsia maculata Ruiz & Pav.

(Uploaded as: Till )
Locality of wild origin: Ecuador, Morona-Santiago Province - Side road 14km north of Gualaquiza off Hwy 45 at an elevation of 1580 meters. Grows as an epiphyte on remnant trees from an old forest.
Photographer: Jerry Raack
Note: There were many of these very large Tillandsia in bloom in the trees. Very large plants growing 1.5 to 2 meters tall with huge candelabra like inflorescences. Deep blue-violet flowers with flared petals, stamens and pistil included. They varied in color from a rose to a deep red in color. Some had very broad foliage with leaves easily 9 cm wide, while others were more moderate with leaves 5 cm wide. The largest plant shown was easily more than 1.5 meters in diameter by 2 meters high with broad yellow-green leaves. It had 50 branches off of the main stem, and some of those branches had 20 spikes, each spike having 15 flowers. A very large and impressive plant! Doing a little conservative math, that would be 40 branches X 15 spikes X 8 flowers = 4800 flowers on one plant! I never saw any vegetative offsets on any of these plants; hence, I hypothesize that this is a monocarpic species, reproducing only from seed. Young plants usually had maculate leaves (beautifully splotched with red on yellow). A very large and outstanding species. (Sent: brom-l@science.uu.nl)
Identification: solved

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Identification: Walter Till (2018-03-16) =Tillandsia maculata Ruiz & Pav.
Add Note: Scott Sandel (2018-03-16) - Looks like what I posted here from Tabaconas Namballe Nat'l Sanctuary, in cloud forest at approx. 2800 meters. Tabaconas is close to Loja as the crow flies (or Andean Condor as the case may be). I thought it was tovariensis, but Walter id’ed as maculata. (Sent: brom-l@science.uu.nl)
Add Note (13721): Eric Gouda (2018-03-16) - This type is very variable and we tend to say that the shorter branched ones are T.tovarensis and the longer ones like this one are T.maculata, but it is not that simple I'm afraid. (Sent: brom-l@science.uu.nl)