They are both Sun King...name was used twice...Elmore's cultivar has red striations underneath the leaves and the brazilian species takes a lot of light to turn a bit yellow..

Thanks! HDD. You are a walking Bromepedia.

Lyndi - I believe your Sun King from Russell in Australia is really Neo. Yellow Devil - with parents Sun King x kautskyi. This had also confused me for quite a while, as the two plants are both shown as Sun King on the fcbs photo index. The one photographed that looks like Russell's, and the same as yours, was taken by another Australian, Keith Golinski. That plant was also called Red Devil by yet other Australian growers and sellers! It is us Aussies in the wrong here - in my opinion. That neo continues to be incorrectly sold here as Sun King, by several sellers who never question the names they bought the plant as.

You are right - they are different plants. Your Sun King from Michael has the correct name - IMO.
Yellow Devil, by Elmore, has very stiff leaves also, and can take full sun (like both its parents). It has irregular red streaks on the underside of the leaves, as HDD said.

Here are a couple of photos of one of my Yellow Devils.
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{{gwi:516795}}

The name of this neo is a contentious issue in Australia. Others will likely disagree with me...

I hope this helps you Lyndi, rather than confuse you further.

Cheers,
Kerry

Kerrie

Thanks for the info! Really appreciate it. Actually my son suspected it to be Neo. Yellow Devil (Elmore #1004- 'Sun King' x kautskyi), so I posted to seek help from you gurus.
Thanks!

* Sorry, typo error in my title, should read 'Will the real Sun King please stand up!'

I am not going to say much more about this seemingly 'can of worms' but I have been able to find and grow 4 of this Elmore grex including 'Lucky Strike'......and don't agree with any of the "experts"

What part don't you agree with, HDD? You do seem to agree that Yellow Devil is a grex and not a species.

Here's my two cents worth: Yellow Devil is the grex name for all offspring from the Elmore cross of N. cruenta 'Sun King' x kautskyi. 'Lucky Strike' is one of the cvs. from that grex, and is the one that has the red streaks, so in my opinion Kerry's plant, Lyndi's second one and Golinski's photo should all properly be named N. Yellow Devil 'Lucky Strike', or simply Lucky Strike.

Calling it Yellow Devil is not wrong, it's just incomplete, since there are other cvs. from that grex (Gold Dust, Bonanza, Eureka, Yukon & Golden Nugget). The prectice of giving grex names has been phased out now, but it was the norm when Elmore was making his hybrids. Nowadays the cv. name is all that matters.

Calling the red-streaked cv. "Sun King", on the other hand, is wrong, since that is only one of its parents.

If anyone has copies of the old Grande magazine, they can verify this. Grande was published by Elmore (during the 70s?) and had only a few issues, now collector's items. One of the articles was about N. cruenta 'Sun King' and its hybrids, and the photo of it shows a plain green form of N. cruenta with prominent red leaf tips (no red streaks), surrounded by some of the hybrids. Unfortunately I don't have the magazines, just a badly discolored photocopy of that picture that I made some 20 years ago, otherwise I'd post it, but find the magazine and see for yourself! ;-)

Aah! Thanks so much Lisa for that full explanation, versus HDD's brief cryptic and critical one.
Now I know that Yellow Devil is the grex name - not clear in the fcbs photo index for Yellow Devil, where the red-streaked one is shown. So now I must add to my label another name, i.e. Lucky Strike (will need to get a longer label!).
I'm afraid many Aussie's won't accept that name now, due to it being sold and grown by many as Sun King. And I have been guilty for wrongly selling it as Yellow Devil - well, at least I was closer... Many brom folk dislike changes, but I try to keep up to date if I can - with much eye-rolling by others in response ;-).

So Neoregelia 'Lucky Strike' it now is. Phew!

Cheers,
Kerry

And the above is the reason....HDD's brief cryptic and critical one was written...I don't believe the info is correct. Everyone has an opinion and like you say no one wants to change ...........

So one of my more recent acquisitions was an unnamed neo that has red stripes. Is 'Lucky Strike' the only neo with the red streaks? Is it safe to assume that this is either a 'Lucky Strike' or has it as a parent/relative? The red stripes aren't on the bottom of the leaves, only on the top though.

{{gwi:516798}}

{{gwi:516801}}

Lucky Strike is not the only Neo with red stripes, Andy. There are lots of them! The pattern, location and general appearance of the streaks (as well as the plant as a whole) will help identify it. Yours looks like Rosea Striata (a form of N. farinosa), or possibly one of its hybrids.

Thanks Lisa. I hate to keep asking questions on specifics like that, but my neo knowledge is coming along a lot slower than other genera. I hadn't come across other red striped neos yet (and not sure how many hours it would have taken to flip through the photo index to find them without helpful pointers). Thankfully we can share pictures which help the written descriptions. The help was appreciated as usual.