How big is that inflorescence, Tomas?

It could be B. alfonsi-johannis too. I'm not sure how you tell the difference between that and magnifica. Very nice, whatever it is!

I don't think that one is B. magnifica Tomas. Compare it to the photo in Blooming Broms, it seems much smaller, but just as nice.

As stated below the picture, the inflorescence is 2 1/2 feet long. Actually, Billbergia alfonsi-joannis seems to be very similar, but how big?
Tomas

Any chance of re-posting that magnifica photo...?
Or the one from the Blooming Bromeliads book...?
Thanks
Peyton

Thanks, I'm familiar with all of those pics...
I'm trying to find additional photos of B. magnifica.
Anyone have the book Blooming Bromeliads by Baensch? There's supposed to be a magnifica photo in it....
Peyton

This post was edited by rpwalton on Thu, Sep 4, 14 at 13:05

Hi Everyone

Gee Tomas I haven't heard of you for ages, how are things in Italy? Those pic's on the FCBS site are from "Mr. Billbergia" himself; Don Beadle and probably as good as you'll get.

Have you tried the Brom-L Picture Gallery? See:http://www.registry.bsi.org/tropical/?gal=brom&genus=Billbergia&name=magnifica&id=9617

Nice to hear from you again.

All the best, Nev.

Yes, I've also seen that Brom-L photo which I suspect is a different helicoid Billbergia, maybe rosea or stenopetala, hard to tell with the spent inflorescence and the partial foliage shot... but comparing those leaves with Don Beadle's plant I would say it is not the same species. Most of the magnifica pics online are some other helicoid bill...

Don's pics are awesome, but I was just looking for more photos...
I was told the plant pictured in the Baensch book was massively huge, so I'm still curious to see it if anyone has the book. I'd buy the book, but at almost $300 bucks I'd rather spend that money on plants...

But then again, perhaps the magnifica pictured on fcbs with Don Beadle is not the real thing....
Reason I mention this is that the original monograph for Billbergia magnifica has this note in the index: "folia glauca albo-marmorata" which I believe says "white-marbled gray leaves" and the plant pictured on fcbs seems to have very green leaves with no markings........?
Peyton

Curiosity is getting the better of me, doing a little more research I found this:

Nichols Arboretum
{{gwi:437613}}

and this:

University of Connecticut
{{gwi:437610}}

Both of those are listed as Billbergia magnifica. I also found there is a cultivar, 'Acutisepala':

Kew Gardens
Billbergia Magnifica var. Acutisepala
{{gwi:437614}}

All of these definitely show that white marbling rpwalton mentioned. Sorry, this probably muddles the issue even further. I'm betting bromeliad taxonomy is one of the more daunting tasks in botany...

Hi everyone - I'm no expert on Billbergias or any other brom's for that matter, and as for taxonomy; forget it, it's way out of my league.

I'd still put my money on Don Beadle's plant on the F.C.B.S. site as being the real deal though. If you can't believe a man who's spent half his life working with Bill's, who can you believe?

All the best, Nev.

Hi again - I forgot to mention in my previous post, there may also be different forms of this plant which could explain the differences.

Also we seem to have over-looked the fact that Don Beadle's plant may have been grown in lower light than some of the others pictured which could account for the lack of banding. I have several Bill's with definite banding when grown in high light, but when grown in low light, they don't even rate a second glance, no banding and very ordinary.

I guess what I'm saying is, when trying to solve a dilemma, we must look at all of the possibilities.

All the best, Nev.

The plant shown with Mrs. Foster in 'Blooming Bromeliads' is a show stopper, much, much larger than the ones shown above.

The photos on FCBS are prosessionally done and only of the plant. Try this link to see the original photo of the plant with Don that will show relative size of the plant. These plants with large helicoid type blooms are extremely difficult to grow. Don the grew the plant successfully in Texas but after he moved to Florida the plant struggled because the air flow must be high or humidity takes its toll. Today only a few remain in collections.

Here is a link that might be useful: full view

B. magniica's natural habitat, from Wikipedia, "The Paraneña region has a humid climate, with abundant precipitation throughout the year and only moderate seasonal changes in temperature." I would be very surprised if it can't handle Florida's climate....
Yesterday I received this large magnifica pup from someone in central Florida.
Seems pretty healthy to me...

Naoh, the inflorescences in those pics do not match the description in Mez's monograph, so I would think they are all mis-labeled...

Nev, I understand about trusting Beadle and the FCBS, but the leaf color and markings do not match the original description, and yes I've considered the difference in greenhouse culture and wild plants, so maybe that is the issue....

I would still like to see the photo in the Blooming Bromeliads book if anyone could post it please.
Thanks
Peyton

Hi everyone.

rpwalton - I don't put a lot of faith in the accuracy of bromeliad information I find on Wikipedia; although it is a great "general" site with a wealth of information, it always needs to be "double checked" as it isn't always entered by "experts" of the particular topic.

Reading between the lines, I suspect that some of the brom information is just the opinion/s of amateur brom growers with no expertise in growing the particular plant under discussion, and often when this information is compared to other articles written by people with more authority in that field, it's sometimes found to be incorrect.

All the best, Nev.

Hi Nev,
The wikipedia article was not about bromeliads, but rather about the geography and climate of Paraguay....
The type plant was found near the Apa River in Paraguay growing "in the cracks of rocks" according to the original monograph from 1903 by Mez.

Hi Peyton,

I have to agree with you about the photos I found, especially considering the first two are labeled as magnifica and clearly have different inflorescences.

If no one gets back to you with a photo from the book you mentioned, you might check out some libraries. The link I'm including is a decent national library database and I got multiple hits for this book in my area. Hopefully you will get some results for your location as well.

ISBN-10: 0964105608
ISBN-13: 978-0964105607

Here is a link that might be useful: WorldCat

From Blooming Bromeliads upper left with Racine Foster.

Thanks Naoh - good idea!

And thanks Gonzer - appreciate the photo!
I finally got to see it...

Hi everyone

Gee Gonz, that's a monster; how many Till's could you grow in the space it takes to grow one of those?

Thanks for sharing.

All the best, Nev.

A lot!