Tillandsia juan-gruberi Takiz. & Gouda, 2025

Tillandsia juan-gruberi Takiz. & Gouda , sp. nov. Figs 1–3 View FIGURE 1 View FIGURE 2 View FIGURE 3

Type:— COLOMBIA. Guaviare: San José del Guaviare, 185 m, s.d., Juan Sebastian Gruber s.n., flowered in cultivation in collection Hiroyuki Takizawa, Japan, January 2025 ( holotype: COL, photo U).

Diagnosis: A Tillandsia paraensis like species that can be distinguished by the short stiff fleshy incurved beaked upper peduncle bracts ( vs. laminate), densely flowered lanceolate 2.2 cm wide spike ( vs. subdense to 1.5 cm wide and linearlanceolate), coriaceous, carinate, 2 cm wide floral bracts ( vs. chartaceous, ecarinate, 2.7 cm wide), and lingulate petals to 3.4 cm long ( vs. to 6.5 cm long and lanceolate).

Description:— Plant flowering 20–30 cm tall, acaulescent, forming an ovoid subbulbous rosette. Leaves stiff, 24–35 cm long, much exceeding the inflorescence or curving and therefore exceeded by the inflorescence, sparsely lepidote, the outermost reduced and without a blade; sheath large, not very distinct from the blade, thick chartaceous, ovate, convex, ca 5 cm long, 3 cm wide, with broad membranaceous margins, densely lepidote on both sides, with subappressed cinereous and brown centered trichomes, pale to dark brown distally, veined; blade suberect to recurving, somewhat stiff, fleshy and coriaceous, channeled to involute distally, very narrowly triangular, 17–26 cm long, 1–1.5 cm wide at the base, margins firm, with one or a few longitudinal furrows; apex attenuate, acute and slightly pungent, sparsely to densely lepidote toward the base especially adaxially, less lepidote abaxially; with closely appressed, distally transparent trichomes, not masking the color of the blade, green. Inflorescence simple, erect or ascending; peduncle short and concealed by the leaves, wholly covered by its bracts, erect, stout, ca 10 cm long, 4 mm in diameter, sparsely lepidote, green, even; peduncle bracts the lower ones foliaceous but soon reducing in length, suberect, the sheathing part clasping the peduncle or slightly divergent, imbricate, much exceeding the internodes, the blades rigid-coriaceous and subulate, 2.5–4 cm long, beak like, the upper ones pungent, sparsely to densely lepidote toward the base, green. Spikes erect or ascending, densely distichously 5–10 flowered, strongly complanate, lanceolate, acute, 12–15 cm long, 2.2 cm wide, with a reduced sterile flower at the apex; rachis hidden, stout, nearly straight or somewhat curved, excavated near the flowers and bluntly 4-angled, sparsely lepidote, green, the internodes slightly over 10 mm long, smooth. Floral bracts suberect, densely imbricate, coriaceous, even or slightly nerved, bluntly carinate especially in the middle, elliptic or ovate, acutish or obtuse, slightly inflated and incurved, 2.5–3 cm long, 2 cm wide, exceeding the sepals, three times as long as the internodes, with thin margins, abaxially appressed lepidote not much masking the color of the bract, greenish and tinged reddish at the base. Flowers sessile, ca 38 mm long, slightly divergent and the base contiguous with the rachis; receptacle short, obconic, 3.7 mm long, 5.4 mm in diameter, ovary sunk for 1.5 mm into it; sepals very stiff coriaceous, surface even (not obviously nerved), obovateelliptic, rounded then obtuse, nearly straight, 2–2.4 cm long, 1–1.1 cm wide, with broad hyaline margins, adaxial ones ecarinate, free, closely adpressed lepidote only abaxially, green; corolla tubular-erect; petals 3–3.4 cm long, 0.5 cm wide, lingulate, narrowly rounded, pinkish to red, whitish toward the base (lower 1/3), blade erect, the tips rolled outwards. Stamens just exerted, in two whorls of unequal length, 3.2-3.5 cm long; filament flattened and narrowed toward the base, straight, white and tinged reddish distally; anther dorsifixed near the middle, oblong, 2–2.5 mm long, 1 mm wide, obtuse at the apex, black, pollen yellow. Pistil just exceeding the stamens, 3.3–3.6 cm long; ovary subpyriform, 5–6 mm long, 3 mm wide, attenuate then slightly contracted into the style, green; style elongate, many times longer than the ovary, slender; stigma conduplicate erect, pinkish red, white toward the base. Capsule cylindric, over 6 cm long, ca 7 mm in diameter, much exceeding the floral-bracts, short beaked.

Observations:— Tillandsia juan-gruberi belongs to the subgenus Tillandsia with well exserted stamens above the petals. It is morphologically close to Tillandsia paraensis Mez , which has a large distribution from Colombia to the Guianas, Brazil, and Ecuador to Bolivia. In its habit it resembles Tillandsia paraensis . However, the leaves are much less lepidote, especially the leaf blade is nearly glabrous and more greenish compared with the cinereous leaves of T. paraensis . The simple inflorescence also resembles that of T. paraensis , but with a short peduncle ( vs. elongate) and flowers with erect or slightly divergent corolla ( vs. corolla with spreading to recurving petal blades). Most obvious are the somewhat stiff bluntly carinate sparsely lepidote green floral bracts, which are thin and soft, ecarinate, densely lepidote and often pinkish to reddish in T. paraensis . For more details see Table 1.

Etymology:—Named in honor of Juan Sebastian Gruber, the collector of the type specimen and General Manager at Bromelias de Colombia SAS since 2012. He was born in 1981, the son of the German horticulturist Franz Gruber and Gloria Álvaréz, founders of Bromelias de Colombia SAS. From a young age, he grew up surrounded by Bromeliads, as his father’s passion for these incredible plants was immense. He attended a regular school, but it was quite unique since it was located among green fields at the foot of mountains, near a river. So, nature was always nearby in his life.

Distribution and habitat:— Tillandsia juan-gruberi is known from the type locality only, where it grows abundantly in clusters in open gallery forest along the Caño La Esperanza river, a branch of Guaviare river. It is not known to the authors if it grows in other areas, so nothing can be said about the conservation status.

Phenology:— Tillandsia juan-gruberi flowered in cultivation in January, but it has been found flowering from

February till May in the Type area.