Vriesea alta (Baker) É. Morren ex Mez (1896: 617). (Fig. 10)

Taxonomic and nomenclatural notes: —Morren was the first to mention the name “ Tillandsia (Vriesia) alta ”, in his unpublished iconography located in the Kew libraries (Gouda et al. [cont. updated]). Baker (1889) did not accept the genus Vriesea and treated this taxon as Tillandsia alta (É.Morren) Baker, citing Vriesea alta É.Morren as a synonym. Mez (1934) positioned this taxon as a synonym of Vriesea paniculata (L.) Mez (1934: 406) in Vriesea subg. Alcantarea. This synonym was not followed by Smith & Downs (1977). We found a photo (by L.B. Smith), in the GH herbarium, of a specimen (associated with Morren, Fig. 10C) containing three complete flowers, probably the material used by Morren to illustrate the species. Grant (1995a) elevated Alcantarea to genus rank and excluded V. alta from Alcantarea (É.Morren ex Mez) Harms (1929: 802). Then, Versieux & Wanderley (2010) presented the lectotype (É.Morren plate, in Kew) and discussed the possible affinity with the A. extensa group. This taxon has a compound inflorescence, distichous flowers with long and strongly recurved petals, and stamens radially spreading and exserted.

This set of characteristics could lead us to place this taxon or in Alcantarea (petal appendages and developed apical coma of the seeds, occurring in eastern Brazil) or Pseudalcantarea (Mez) Barfuss et al. (2016: 42) (petals without appendages and seeds with a short or absent apical coma, occurring from Mexico to Nicaragua). However, there are no specimens other than the three separate flowers found by Lyman Smith in Liège to verify these characters. On a recent visit (2019) to the Liège herbarium, we could not find this specimen.

The lack of a diagnostic description useful to distinguish it at the genus level, precludes a discussion at this time, so this taxon will be maintained in Vriesea until additional material becomes available. It is very unlikely that this taxon belongs to Vriesea, especially because of the floral morphology with long and strongly recurved petals, such as observed in Alcantarea and Pseudalcantarea, whereas Vriesea has tubular, campanulate or rarely urceolate corollas, and petals with the apex straight to recurved. Therefore, we could consider three scenarios: 1) This taxon belongs to Pseudoalcantarea, slightly expanding the southern boundary of the genus; 2) This taxon belongs to Alcantarea, creating a disjunct distribution for the genus (at present, the northern border is at the Brazilian state of Bahia); or 3) The description of this taxon included a mislabeling of localities, which may have occurred during the cultivation at the Liège Botanical Garden.