"Uncle Derek Says"

Aechmea Fulgens/Miniata Group
Originally published as "VIVA LA DIFFERENCE" in Bromeletter 18(1): 6-7. 1981

"This article was prompted by a recent experience between your Editor (Olwen Ferris), myself and a, should I say unknown, third party. No doubt many of you more experienced growers have come across similar happenings, but it does indicate how casual a plant grower can be. This particular third party was a keen Cymbidium orchid grower and I know he was keen because he had recently paid $50.00 for a back bulb of an extra special plant. Anyway, he did want a few extra Bromeliads just to add variety to his many Cymbidiums. He received, by mail order, two plants namely Nidularium innocentii var. innocentii and var. purpureum, but he didn't want them because they were the same as the ones he already had. When my wife and I called to pick up the unwanted plants, we found that his other plant was in fact! Aechmea 'Royal Wine' and we knew which ones we would rather have! He was, of course, looking at the similarity in the green top surface and purple under surface. This leads me into looking at the plants that I have in a similar bracket, which vegetatively look alike, but are not the same, or should I say, may not be the same. Let's look at the Aechmea 'Royal Wine' grown in South Australia. There seem to be two forms, one with long narrow leaf and the other with broader leaf. Could not the broad leaf be Aechmea 'Maginali'? (I sent two leaf forms over to Mr L.B. Smith when he was at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, USA, and the reply came back, "two of the many forms of the hybrid Aechmea "Royal Wine". - It looks as though we can count ourselves lucky to only have two clones of Aechmea "Royal Wine" here in Australia. Ed.) THE DIFFERENCE Petals Scape Berries Leaf width Inflor. Shape (a) Aechmea miniata var. discolor blue dark red red 5-6cm irregular & erect (b) Aechmea fulgens var. discolor violet carmine red/rose 5-6cm spear shape & erect (c) Aechmea victoriana var. discolor pink/purple brown & black 4-5cm semi-pendant (d) Aechmea 'Royal Wine' = (a) x (c) dark blue orange 5-6cm semi-pendant (e) Aechmea 'Maginali' = (b) x (a) more robust than parents Note. Information is from "BROMELIADS" by Padilla and "BROMELIADS For Home and Garden" by Rauh. Very little has been written up on the hybrids so you can only assume some traits from the parents. For example, we would expect that "Maginali" would have wider leaves than "Royal Wine". I have three of the above plants, two of which tally, but I'm worried about my "Royal Wine". I'd just hate to have a misnomer in my collection! So while I have a "Royal Wine" with orange berries, its leaves are 7-8 cm wide just to add to the problem. I would say that all make good specimen plants, with the flowers and resultant berries being persistent for months. I do have another plant in this complex called Aechmea 'Polyantha' which is a hybrid between Aechmea 'Maginali' and Aechmea nudicaulis. Although I have not yet flowered it, the shape is similar and the leaves "discolor" (The confusion over the name Polyantha started back in 1964 when a Sydney nurseryman released plants grown from German seed of Aechmea fulgens var. discolor X Aechmea miniata var. discolor and said the cross was called Aechmea 'Polyantha'. There were hundreds of these plants in both the green form and discolor sold through the chain stores. Ed.) Comments added Aug 2008 If Lyman Smith was correct then 'Royal Wine' was not a primary hybrid suggesting that even in those early days, hybrids may well have been taking the place of true species - see Harry E. Luther in J. Brom. Soc. 42(1):8.1982. If this were the case, then parentage of Aechmea 'Maginali' is also suspect. In 1961 in a letter from Julian Nally to Bill Morris in Australia Julian mentioned he had 50,000 'Maginali' which he used for the cut flower trade. One wonders what variations there were is such a large amount which could only have come from seed raising not offsetting! No doubt some had concolor leaves both green and purplish, and some discolor. Which ones actually survived to the current day? From the Australian point of view the large production in 1964 of 'Maginali' but called 'Polyantha' must still cause problems to this day . In 1981 I was growing Aechmea 'Polyantha' but was it the true version or the Aussie one? Referral to Bromeliads by Richter1977 is not much help either because the photograph there shows a hybrid with very liitle influence of the pollen parent. It even suggests to me that it could well have been a selfing of 'Maginali'. So there are problems with identity of hybrids in this Fulgens/Miniata Group even with those on the Cultivar Register. One may well shudder at all those that have been grown from seed from these hybrids and have not been registered. All have a panicle of flowers with a few branches at the bottom, The colour lasts for months not only at flowering but at berry production stage lending itself to the cut flower market. To be able to link any plant in this group without a label is an impossible task. Registered names include; 'Compacta', 'Fulgida', 'Maginali', 'Magnificent', 'Polyantha', 'Red Wing', 'Reginald', and 'Vin Rose'."