A legendary plant. When you look up ‘rare’ in the dictionary, you should see a picture of tayoensis. This plant has only been collected a few times in nature, in Ecuador and Peru.

Most, if not all plants in cultivation came from these two collections. The most well know plant was Wally Berg’s which won the ‘Best in Show’ award at the Bromeliad World Conference in Orlando in 1996. At that same show, another plant was donated by the Marie Selby Botanical Garden and was auctioned off for $1,200.00 to a buyer from the Philippines.

The plant is a large grower, to over 4 feet in diameter. The leaves are petiolate with a narrow spiny petiole and a broad, spineless leaf. The plants are green, tinted orange-red.

The inflorescence is a spiny head of many recurving, orange-red bracts and yellow flowers and can last for a year or more. Grow warm and moist (not wet) in shade to bright shade.

A beautifully variegated cultivar of Aechmea blanchetiana, the result of an intraspecific crossing by Chester Skotak. It grows in the form of a typical Ae. blanchetiana, over three feet tall in a cluster of offsets, with three-inch-wide, stiff leaves, forming a funnelform rosette. The foliage is light green, does not tend to blush bronze or reddish, but has wide, bright cream-colored variegation. The variegation is bold and does not fade with age.

 

The inflorescence is typical of the species, tall, branchy, orange with yellow flowers. A spectacular plant for landscape in shade to full sun. At this point, still a desirable collector item.

CULTURE REQUIREMENTS

LIGHT	Full Sun to Shade
WATER	Frequently
TEMP	Warm
MATURE DIMENSIONS	3' x 2'
CARE	General Bromeliad Care Make Your Bromeliad Bloom

We have been growing this plant for years under the name of cf. cylindrata, (white) but we are not at all certain of the name. The “cf.” means “compares favorably” or “similar to”, though to us, it looks a bit more like gamosepala than cylindrata. At any rate it is an all white form with no pigmentation in the inflorescence. A proven hardy plant to near freezing without damage, it is also prolific and forms a nice clump in a fairly short time. The leaves are gray-green and form an upright rosette.

An exceptional cultivar of this species with leaves bearing intense silver banding over deep green. The narrow banding covers both sides of the leaves and is much brighter than in most other clones. A rare and desirable collector’s item.

A clone from near Huatusco, Veracruz, Mexico, approaching the northern limit of this far ranging species. Smaller than most in the species, averaging about 12 to 14 inches tall. Coloration is uniform green with faint silver banding on the leaf undersides and it bears pronounced black spines. Bloom is like that of a 'typical' nudicaulis.