It looks fine to me the way you've got it, just don't put it somewhere where you'll be brushing against it-- very pokey! This one likes a lot of sun too.

Great plant I have mine in full sun. (COOK IT)

I always loved that name phan-aero-phffffffflllleebia.
Looks a lot like A. JC Superstar. Great looking plant WL.

I just don't like the look for some reason. Maybe because it reminds me of a brocchinia. I only see one registered cross with it. I wonder why? I think it would make a great xHohenmea.

BTW, what would a Billbergia x Hohenbergia be?

WL, your plant looks very nice to me - as is, though it would make a very dramatical statement when the bottom leaves are removed. But that's only my opinion. Why don't you remove the pup when it is big enough and grow it trimmed and leave the mother as is?!

I like the colour of the plant. Would it be what what Michael list as p rubra? The plant I have is green. And when grown in the sun, it only gets an orangey\yellow colour. But, my plant sported a variegated pup which I planted in the shade to try and show up the weak variegation better. This far it has not given me any variegated pups, only two green ones. But I am still hoping it will give me a variegated pup as well as it has not flowered yet.

Japie
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I like your green variety. Perhaps what I have is called rubra, I'm lucky to have remembered the name in the first place. The seller doesn't like to be bothered with name tags.

I think I'll try moving it to different locations. I think I just have too much red around it now and it needs some green to offset it.

This thing seams slow growing. But, I guess I've only had it for a month, so I can't really tell. I'm tempted to mount the pup on a tree, I'm just trying to decide if I should do it now or wait until after hurricane season.

Yes, Japie, it's phanerophlebia Rubra, and the floppy lower leaves seem to be somewhat characteristic. They are narrower and spinier than on the green phan, but if you cut them off it would look butchered (to me, anyway).

I crossed it with another Aechmea a while back but the cross didn't seem to want to bloom much, so I never did anything with it.

I'm not sure what you'd call a Billbergia x Hohenbergia. It would probably have to be xBillhenbergia or something like that.

Lisa, I think you're right, xBillhenbergia.

I'm probably going to cross phanero with Neo's and Nid's. I like the flower you get on most xNidumeas and xNeomeas. I put a bunch of nid pollen in the freezer Monday for a few wishful future projects. I think I'll collect some more pollen tomorrow.

Very interesting...

I have been meaning to get around to posting pics of some near flowering-sized plants I established out front as terrestrials last year. Certainly I was very surprised to see that, with 5-6 hours of afternoon sun on their faces since being divided up, they look NOTHING like either mom, nor what every other phanerophlebia image I've ever seen. I am now convinced that this sp. suffers from the same issues that Hohenbergia correia-araujoi has when it doesn't receive enough light (flabby growth). I will try and get some images up tomorrow, but suffice to say that these plants look very much like lean, extra-spiky milk chocolate and silver versions of Aechmea zebrina. Very fetching!

Besides that, the plants that I have grown out back as epiphytes for almost a decade that get 4-5 hours of full morning sun never had the drooping leaves evident in the plant above and (even more so) in the B&W photo in Victoria Padilla's book. While their rosettes are invariably vase-shaped, IME, these lower leaves should be short, narrow triangular and more at right angles to the rosette, than excessively elongated and drooping.

Several years back I crossed this sp. with Aechmea manzanaresiana(seed parent) more for laughs than anything else...will shoot some photos of young plants next time I'm out at our commercial greenhouse. None of the offspring are taller than about 5" yet, but it is pretty obvious even as large seedlings that the tubular shape, rose-reddish coloration and transverse banding are dominant traits when crossed with a concolorous gray plant like manz.

Cheerio,

J

Hi all,

Re green versus rubra A.phanerophlebia.
The first (supposed and labeled) phanerophlebia I bought several years ago was green with silver banding, whether grown in shade or full sun. It has the usual thinner first leaves which eventually droop, followed by the broader upright leaves. I love this characteristic. See pic below, grown in semi-shade.

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Then I bought A. Tessie, which was thought to be a cross between phanerophlebia and distichantha. To me it looks to be the same plant as the green phan. Here is Tessie growing in full sun - more compact due to light and hard conditions.

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A few years later I was at Olive T.'s nursery. I saw and asked about a very bronze, spiny aechmea. Olive said it was A. phanerophlebia, and I was confused! When I remarked upon its unusual colour, Olive seemed unaware of any other form/colour of A. phanerophlebia - according to Olive, it is always bronze-red, especially when grown in strong light. So I bought one of Olive's phans. This one I grew in semi-shade - silly me - and it promptly lost its bronze colour, reverting to green. Here are a couple of pics of it flowering.

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Now I have its pup growing in much brighter light, and it is bronzing or rubra-ing nicely. I expect it will get more rubra-like as it continues to grow in good, strong light. See pics below.

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SO....has anyone else queried the green and red/bronze forms of A.phanerophlebia? Harry Luther has identified A.Tessie as a cultivar of phanerophlebia.
Are there two forms of the species A. phanerophlebia - OR, is the green phan an impostor??

Cheers,
Confused Kerry

OK...same thing Kerry has just illustrated. Limited collection data and lit reports for this sp. that I have seen suggest that its is a mid-elevation lithophyte/occasional epiphyte that grows in exposed locations.

These are the plants out front...WSW exposure and 5-6 hours of full sun daily.

[IMG]http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa270/stonejaguar/Aephanerophlebialeafdetail.jpg[/IMG]

This is a large offset grown out back, ENE exposure with several hours of filtered morning sunshine.

[IMG]http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa270/stonejaguar/Aephanerophlebiaoffset.jpg[/IMG]

I am now quite convinced that the conventional form that many of us have grown accustomed to for this sp. is an aberration, and that the plant should look like the narrow leaf plants illustrated above.

J

I need one of these to keep my egleriana and melinonii company

Jay, can you post again using the HTML code line? Your photos will show up in the preview, and then we can all see them.

Thanks, Lisa. Was wondering which of the options would generate the desired result...

Again, full sun terrestrial:

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Morning sun epiphyte:

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...and morning sun-exposed large rooted offset:

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Doh!!

J

I've been collecting self set seeds from my phanerophlebia the last few weeks. I mostly got 1 seed from a seed pod, but I think I did get two seeds once or twice. I think that only 25% of the flowers produced any seeds so I didn't get a lot of seeds, maybe 40 total. The good news is that phanerophlebia makes a decent pollen parent and I did freeze some and have done a successful cross with the frozen pollen and I'm still waiting on others to see if they worked.

The seeds are viable, I have about a dozen of them up already.

great thread and photos! It makes for good reading and I can't wait to see results of the breeding going on. I must see if I can source one for myself, now where did I put that wishlist............
BA

Kerry,

How is your red Ae.phanerophlebia going. Do you have a recent photo of the one growing on the tree branch.
It seems to me from the photo that you have it placed right on top of the branch. How did you attach it this way.

Cheers
Brod

Brod - I have reconsidered growing the (true?) phanerophlebia - bronze form - as an epiphyte. It didn't grow well in that spot, as in earlier photo. Plus, that already-damaged branch came down, so I moved it to another branch - even though it had rooted well to its previous host branch. It hasn't done very well where relocated either (in a callistemon), but now has a pup which I will remove and try growing in a pot or mound on the ground, leave its mum where she is, and compare the growth of both. The green form, which I suspect is a phanero hybrid crossed with distichantha, performs better epiphytically under my conditions.

Sorry, I don't have any current photos, and I'm running out of time before heading off to the U.S. 8 sleeps to go! If I finish packing in time, I'll try to get a current photo posted.

Regards attaching to branch - that is a front-on photo. Side-on, you would see how there is a short curved "knee-bone" or base of plant with a short thick stolon. That shape lent itself to quite easy attachment to the top of the branch with a stretchy fabric called "ribbing" - cut into long strips on the stretch (warp, versus weft, of fabric). "Spandex" is another stretchy fabric which works well, but is more expensive. Local Spotlight stores sell both fabrics. I have tried many different attaching materials for epiphytic culture over the years, and find the ribbing strips suit me best. Some folk use old stockings - 'tis a personal choice - but stretch is important to get adequate tension when tying and knotting. I also prefer to use a colour which blends in with the bark - usually a dark brown. I don't use anything between the base of the plant and the bark, eg. sphagnum moss, because I want the roots to attach to the branch itself, and not to a medium in between it and the branch. They are more firmly established and rooted that way when "thar she blows!". Hope this helps.

K :)

Kerry, best of luck with your phanerophlebia. Thanks for the tips on epiphytic culture. Have fun in the US.

Brod

I gave up growing my phanerophlebia on a tree after 18 months. It never put out any roots! It's doing much better in an orchid basket in sphagnum moss.

I forgot that I had a pic of it on the tree right before I took it off. The root you see is an orchid root. No problem growing orchids on that tree.

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