"Uncle Derek Says"

Aechmea 'Gaiters' / caesia

" We had a problem in Australia and I feel sure a similar one exists in the USA. We had two forms of Aechmea caesia. One grew easily and the other was a bit more difficult. The difficult one had blue petals all the time and linked with the true species. The other started off wih bluish petals that opened as grey! Peter Franklin and I got discussing because it just had to be a hybrid with a plant from the Ortgiesia sub-genus of Aechmea. Peter, the brainier one of the two, decided that an anagram of almost all the letters of Ortgiesia was 'Gaiters', and so 'Gaiters' it was. Who was to disagree? We published our findings in Bromeletter and Harry Luther sent me photocopies of herbarium specimens which Alvim Seidel had sent to Selby Gardens as possibly Aechmea caesia. Harry had the view that his plants were A. caesia crossed possibly with A. caudata (an Ortgiesia group plant!!). Our live plants and Harry's dead plants look similar and if this Seidel plant got to Australia then it also made it to the USA. So if your A. caesia looks like these photographs please change the label to A. 'Gaiters'. "

Ae. caesia

Ae.caesia flower

Ae. 'Gaiters'

Ae. 'Gaiters' flower

Photo Credits:
Ae. caesia - Peter Franklin
Ae. caesia flower - John Catlan
Ae. 'Gaiters' - Peter Franklin
Ae. 'Gaiters' flower - Peter Franklin