Looks like the species Neoregelia compacta to me. They can grow into a very large, & attractive clump over time.

could also be macwilliamsii

Maybe a bit too small and open for McWilliamsii, but it could also be Neo Malibu (dwarf form of compacta).

hdd, The Neo. compacta var. macwilliamsii that I'm familiar with grow quite a bit larger and looser than the typical Neo. compacta. It also tends to get a much larger area that flushes red when blooming. Winterlager, your description of the plant being "very stoloniferous" is very helpful. Combined with the spineless leaf margins, that would confirm the Neo. compacta ID. For comparison, a photo of Neo. compacta var. macwilliamsii is posted below.

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Looks like basic N. compacta to me too. They turn very yellow in full sun here, though. They look much better in part shade.

Japie, I don't know about that Malibu. I know Michael has it on his list, but just how "dwarf" is it? N. macwilliamsii is sometimes called "giant compacta", so I'm wondering if the "dwarf" doesn't just mean the regular one? At any rate the name is confusing because there is also hybrid called Malibu which doesn't have any compacta in it at all.

The dwarf is a very small plant. And I am glad macrosepala has spines because it looks just like macwilliamsii here otherwise

Huh? N. macrosepala is scurfy and grey with an overall faint hot pink tinge and has little dark squiggles on the leaf. It's also not stoloniferous, but other than that and the spines and the shape of the inflorescence...... yeah, exactly the same! ;-)

Lisa, Malibu is not very small. About 12 - 15 inches diam. Here's a picture of the plant, and can you believe it, I never took a picture when it was fully coloured up!
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That looks the same as regular compacta, Japie.

O.K. Now I'm confused about N. macrosepala. I would agree with HDD that, other than having spines, macrosepala does look very like compacta and macwilliamsii, like a slightly smaller version of compacta - but with shorter stolons. Well, from what I understand, and conferred on the fcbs site.

So Lisa, you say macrosepala is grey and scurfy, with little dark squiggles on leaf? That is a revelation for me, and if correct, means another question mark on my label.

Cheers,
Kerry

I'm headed to FLorida ..I will check all this out while i'm there

Kerry and HDD, this is what my macrosepala looked like when it was in bloom:

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and later with the pup coming out-- that's where the squiggles or spots are most apparent.

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I think the color of the first picture is truer. I don't remember where I got the plant but I'm fairly confident of its identity. This species is what gives the Groves hybrids their color, and you can sometimes even see remnants of the dark squiggles in some of them too, as here on Grace x Passion:

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Also, Malibu, the hybrid, is macrosepala x pineliana and it looks pretty similar to my macrosepala in texture and color, except that it is stoloniferous, so it all adds up to me.

Here's my compacta, and I'm not seeing any similarity there:

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Thanks Lisa - you've convinced me. Obviously the plant I bought (on eBay!) as N. macrosepala is not the real McCoy. I will now cross that name off my label, and write "small compacta??" instead. Maybe HDD has the same plant as me, and it has crossed the 'muddy' waters as macrosepala....
Your photos show the characteristics of this neo much better than the one on fcbs site. If so inclined, it would be good if you submitted them to Michael A. for inclusion?

Cheers,
Kerry

It's finally starting to flower. Since the only pollen I have is Portea...Porreglia or Neotea? I'm dreaming!

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Probably xPorteregelia, but I doubt anybody's done one-- and for good reason! ;-)

Which Portea do you have? P. petropolitana v. extensa will cross with all kinds of other genera if you use it as the seed parent.

I tried a couple of bigeneric crosses onto macwilliamsii (very closely related to compacta, if not a form of the same species) with no luck. I think that compacta was most likely the seed parent of xNeomea Strawberry, though, with Ae. recurvata as the pollen parent. (I know the registry says otherwise, but they're just guessing and their theory doesn't add up).

I'll cross it with Portea Petropolitana both ways. I guess this is what I have (old pic).

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That might be petropolitana v. petropolitana. That's one I don't have, at least I don't think I do. I have a few unidentified ones that haven't bloomed yet, so who knows?

P. petro. v. extensa is the promiscuous one, though. I've collected seed from that one thinking they were selfed but none of them came true. They had crossed with all kinds of Aechmeas growing nearby. I haven't seen any of the other Porteas do that.

BTW, I sent some of those seeds to the seed bank and I told the guy that they were open-pollinated and probably variable, but might be interesting if someone wanted to take a chance. Did he put any of that info on the list? No, they were listed only as P. petro. v. extensa, so somebody somewhere is probably growing a xPortemea that they think is the real deal. I stopped sending stuff in after that, and after getting similar results from seeds I had ordered from there too.

I crossed the Compacta with purple Portea Petropolitana pollen today. That's a lot of P's! I've never seen purple pollen on purple pistols with a nice purple stamen.

I'm not happy with the pistols on the Compacta. Doesn't seem to have any pollen. I have another unknown Neo in bloom and it has nice pollen, so I'm spreading that around and giving it some Portea pollen.

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I wouldn't be happy if my plants had pistols either, WL. I'm a peaceful sort and don't believe that bromeliads have the right to bear arms. They apparently don't think I have the right to bare arms either, and will scratch me whenever possible, proving they are not entirely without weapons.

Okay, I'm a word nerd. Just for the record, the flower should have 6 stamens and one pistil. The part of the stamen that produces the pollen is called the anther, and the part of the pistil that can receive pollen is called the stigma. Lesson over.

I'm embarrassed. For some reason I had remembered some dumb saying from biology class "pistols shoot pollen". Obviously that wasn't the correct saying!

OK, so is it common for the anthers to not have any pollen? These anthers from PP seem to have some pollen, but not lots. While the Compacta seemed to have no pollen at all.

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What time of day are you looking at it, WL? Some varieties don't appear to have much pollen, but I've never had that problem with compacta.

I check in the morning. With the government screwing with time, I guess I'd better say 1-3 yours after sunrise. They seem to close soon after noon. I will say that I'm having issues with flooding. I water twice a week and my compacta flowers flood. I've been going out and sucking up the water with a paper towel since the thing is in a huge pot that I can't easily lift. Anyway, even the flowers from a few days later are low in pollen.

I also have a Catherine Wilson (probably) that hasn't shown much pollen on the anthers and this one doesn't get flooded. This morning I plucked a CW flower about 90 minutes after sunrise and went to cross my Portea and I don't know if I got any pollen on the pistil. On a purple pistil you should be able to see pollen from a Neo. There was definitely pollen on the Portea anthers at the time.

I guess I can pluck a flower in the afternoon even if closed and see if there is any pollen.

One hour after sunrise you probably won't see pollen on many things, but by 3 or 4 hours after you should. N. compacta flowers do start curling up pretty early, but 9 or 10 o'clock is usually a good time. I know from talking to the others, though, that the flowers can act differently in the winter, so if you're still having any cool weather it might be throwing things off a bit. Obviously if the stamens get wet the pollen is no good, but that shouldn't affect the next day's flowers or any after that.

Today there was lot of pollen in my unknown neo (there always is) with 3 flowers, 3 hours after sunrise. I used that pollen to cross the Compacta, Catherine Wilson and the Portea. I also pollenated the Portea from the unknown neo. I will check the Compacta and CW later in the morning the next time I see flowers. Sunday is flood/sprinkler day so hopefully they flower tomorrow, Saturday.

Temps have been between 65-80 for the last few weeks. Is that considered cold? When the wind is cranking at 15+ mph like it has been, 75 seems cold to me.