The top photos are T. extensa. The inflorescence can flower upwards of a year.
The other could be T. pamalae, named after Pamela Koide.
Unfortunately this species is monocarpic, when it flowers it dies and does not produce pups. The inflo is a beautiful pink when flowering and turns an eerie white afterwards.

Hi Sheila

I don't think the last 2 are pamelae, more like rubroviolacea which I saw a fair few times in Europe, or one of the many Andean spp. which are also in lots of collections in your neck of the woods. Pamelae has a distinctive rosette shape, hard to explain so maybe I'll try to remember to photograph one and post. I does hive adventitious pups though but rarely a proper pup as with many larger tank Tillandsias.

The extensa is lovely! Did you see the huge ones Timm has cultivated at Heidelberg?

Now, that spotted background plant is interesting - named ? Leopardinum??

Cheers, Pedro

I agree with Pedro regarding pamelae. Usually it is a more upright grower (and not as strappy) with a look one never forgets. Actually it reminds me of a juvenile T. rauhii.

Hi Peter , i thought the spotted background plant may have been Wer. kupperiana ,

The very strong neon pink color of the inflorescence misled me when I was looking at extensa on fcbs.org and I failed to recognize it on the photos. The inflorescence is really lovely when you see it live.

Another reason was that the below two plants were labeled extensa. Note the strong purple color of the leaves. The flowering plant does not have this color tone.

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This young plant was labeled as Pamelae. It has this more upright growing habit that gonzer described. Also, the leaf tips hang a big (not only the dry ones), and the big does not have this feature either.

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That inflo of pamelae on fcbs is really nice.

I have looked up rauhii, and have found the next pictures among those I took that look similar to rauhii. I mean the inflorescence look similar but am not sure about the leaves.

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This above plant is a lot smaller than the said pamelae in the first post.

Yes Pedro, this spotted is, so I was told and believe it is, a Wittrockia Leopardinum. Actualy, it is not one but two!

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It is spiny so it is not Werauhia kupperiana.

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The rubroviolacea pic on fcbs does not show a lot but I believe in your expertise.

I have only seen those biggies at Timm from a distance. I have only been there as a private person and not with the society. People are not allowed to walk in there where the broms are. The place is guarded off with a chain and this chain even remained there on days when the whole BG was open to the public. Not to mention the none-public area for broms, this I have not seen at all yet. The next society mtg in the spring of 2010 will be there so I will have the chance to see behind the scene. I really look forward to that visit next year. You should come again. ..The Leopardinum was for sale hm, motivated to come? :-)

Off course, when e.g. those big Aechmeas in flower you cannot miss those, not even from a distance. I saw the pink female form of Ae. Mariae-reginae and Ae. Nally in full flower. They were really nice. There were a couple of others I have already seen but now I cannot recall what exactly those were.

Sheila, the pamelae you show exhibits the classic "vase" look that is the trademark of the species.
Extensa is variable between the colors you've also shown. I have purple pups off the grey form.

Hi all

That's the pamelae look! The only other plant I've seen like it is T trauneri (I think it grows nearby??) Good to see so many pups too - slower growing mounted but more productive! Having the privilege to see Juergen Lautner's collection just before his sad death was a real eye-opener as to the productiveness of the tank Tillandsias when mounted in very bright light (like on a cliff!).

I saw extensas at various altitudes in Nth Peru (500m to 3000m) and they varied a bit in colour and size, but the same stunning giant spike. The ones in cultivation came from Rauh and Knize, most likely from the Chiclayo to Cajamarca Rds. Wonderful scenery but no autobahns!

The Wittrockia is undoubtedly the same as our old Canistrum Leopardinum, supposedly a hybrid but now seeming a species as all of my seedlings (sorry - already have it!) look the same as Kerry recently saw. The debate over what a W gigantea really is will continue. Good topic for a thread!

Cheers, Pedro

Also the other Till looks like a lymanii type - debate about the Peruvian ones of this too. We wait for someone to study the Tillandsias of Peru and sort out the total mess.

The name lymanii fits to that other plant in the previous thread. Thanks Peter.

Now that I got the idea of the pamelae look, I waded thought all the photos I took. Does this big one in the forefront qualify for vase look?

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BTW, that was another, much bigger Leopardinum on the left side.

Is the plant in between Leopardinum and Âpamelea an australis (was told so)?

I will have to look up another motivation for you Peter. Let me see if I found one. I will get back to you on this one. Need to wade through my photos once again.

Speaking of Peru, would you like to find the plant to this tag?

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Hi Sheila, been busy with the renovations! I hoped to get this in Europe but I only saw one at Heidelberg and Timm had no spares. That's a Rauh number I assume. Platyphylla looks like extensa until it blooms. After Xmas New Yr I'll do a thread on tank Tills ( as well as N silvomontana, etc, giant Aechmeas, and whatever else I said I'd do!) The other plant could easily be an australis. Whats the pair on the right? I saw T samaipatensis in a few collections - it looks a bit like that.

Cheers, Pedro

Hi Pedro,

Excuse my ignorance, but in the pic, above of the Tilly name tag, what does "aff." after the word Tillandsia mean?

It's probably a dumb question to the experts, but I'm an old fart and still trying to learn.

All the best, Nev.

If Platyphylla looked like Extensa I think I know what plant lost its tag. The tag was just right next to that particular plant which I did think looked just like another Extensa.

Honestly speaking, I did not know you were after this plant. The reason I posted it is because I have just read an UD comment on T. Sagasteguii on the Aussie photo index (http://www.bromeliad.org.au/) and I thought it could help to solve an open issue, not to mention that your name too came up in that article. When I saw the tag, I also thought it could be a Rauch tag, and that it might help because a Rauch plant was also brought up it this article.

However, after reading that above mentioned comment, I expected a Platyphylla to be much bigger. Derek at all decribes an assumed Sagasteguii as 'It was 2m in diam and the inflorescence plus scape was up to 3m!' and that it is closely related to Platyphylla. Based on this description, I was about to post a photo of a plant, that size surpasses anything I have posted so far.

I am sorry, I cannot tell what that double Tilly is. It is not identified, not even tentatively. Most of these plants lost their tags, which is a petty.

Nev, I was also not sure what aff. meant. Here it is a googled link that explains well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aff., sp. aff., affin, and cf

Hi Nev, maybe it's time I published a small article I wrote on this topic! (If I can find it).

Aff. comes from affinis and is used when a species (usually a collected plant, certainly not a hybrid) resembles a described one but differs in some ways. It is not that species but seems related and further taxonomic investigation is needed. It is used all the time because many bromeliads are so hard to nail down to a species! Depends on the botanist as well!

Hope this helps, Pedro

There's also cf. meaning confer where a plant is very close to the description but has some differences. Lots of these too!

Here's my extensa from earlier this year.

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Hi Pedro,

Thanks for sorting that out for me; learning, learning, always learning.

All the best, Nev.

Hi Nev, Sheila and anyone else who likes the big Tillandsias, here's extensa an the wild, inland from Chiclayo in Nth Peru (middle of nowhere!). It's a scan from my slides (2003). Hasn't technology changed!

Cheers Pedro

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