(Based on an original article by Bruce Dunstan, first published in Bromeliaceae, the Queensland Bromeliad Society Journal, in 2009. It has been rewritten with additional material.)

Thanks largely to the efforts of Bruce Dunstan, Australia can boast more than a little notoriety in variegated Alcantarea production.

Over the past 7-8 years Bruce has been growing a lot of Alcantareas from seed. The company he works for has been producing large numbers of Alcantareas for landscape clients and also people who want something different for their gardens. When they are growing the seedlings through the varying sizes in the production process occasionally striped plants can be selected out and put aside. Soon it was pretty obvious that variegates were coming up occasionally so Bruce began collecting way more seed than would normally be needed, sowing seed specifically for variegates. This resulted in trays of green seedlings, numbering in the many, many thousands, that looked like turf and mostly being disposed of. Usually it will be noticed if a plant has variegation by the 5th or 6th leaf, but some don't show their stripes until they are a bit older. Plants that look great at an early stage (3-4 leaves) often don't have enough chlorophyll to maintain healthy growth as they mature, and succumb. The more striping they have also slows their growth rates to the point that some of the better seedlings have taken years to get to a decent size even with the high rates of fertiliser used to push them along.

Visiting other growers and seeing variegates certainly got him interested in these plants. His first introduction to a variegated Alcantarea was at Keith Golinski's nursery Bromagic. Keith had a seedling batch of Alcantarea glaziouana and one of the individuals was variegated. Keith was happy to sell him green plants but obviously was going to keep his stripy plant. Bruce's first variegated seedlings came as progeny from those green individuals from Keith. At the time he thought the variegation may have been transmitted genetically from the parents, coming from a batch of seedlings that contained a variegated individual, but now he tends to think some species are more prone to variegation and Al. glaziouana appears to be one such species. A variegated plant is not necessary in the first place, just a lot of seed and space! It appears Keith's plant has never been seen since, or perhaps it simply reverted, losing its stripes.

He was able to add more proof to his theory on genetic variegations when he sowed every last seed collected from a variegated Alcantarea extensa that was named for Bobby Powell. Bobby, who lives on the Gold Coast south of Brisbane, grew an Al. extensa to maturity. Bruce was luckily given some of the seed by Arno King, who at this stage was feeding his interest in Alcantareas with seed and pups from his collection and seed from New Zealand. Of the 35 or so seedlings to germinate for him there was one striped seedling....