Huascaran National Park Research Articles

Species of the Poaceae family suitable for Andean livestock farming in the Peruvian Andes reported in GBIF and local studies

Andean grassland ecosystems are covered by a mega-vascular floristic diversity constituted by families such as Poaceae, Rosaceae, Asteraceae, Plantaginaceae, Fabaceae, and Cyperaceae, among the most important ones that include suitable species for Andean Livestock feeding such as sheep, cattle, and South American camelids. However, the accelerated degradation of ecosystems and the extinction of several important species, have put it in our interest to know better the spatio-temporal distribution of these species as a starting point for spatio-temporal monitoring. With this purpose, we compiled information on those identified as D species in the Poaceae family, from thesis studies and published scientific articles. We also examined the record and spatial distribution of D species of this family in the Global Biodiversity Information System (GBIF) corresponding to the Sierra region of Peru. Specific geo-processed maps were generated after data curation. It was found that there are 63 D species included in the genus: Agrostis, Agropirum, Bromus, Calamagrostis, Dissanthelium, Festuca, Hordeum, Muhlenbergia, Nasella, Paspalum, Poa, Stipa, Trisetum and Vulpia, of which only 52 species are registered in GBIF, noting the concentration of records in places of greater tourist interest and with funded research projects such as the Huascaran National Park and others. The few studies on natural grassland species in Peru and the low spatial coverage of the species recorded in GBIF still limit the generation of adequate monitoring strategies.

Glacier retreat and the value of ecosystem services associated with water resources in the Paron basin - Huascaran National Park (Cordillera Blanca), 2009-2018

Glacier retreat and the value of ecosystem services associated with water resources in the Paron basin - Huascaran National Park (Cordillera Blanca), 2009-2018

La temperatura y radiación solar explican diferencias en la distribución de dos árboles altoandinos (Polylepis spp.) localmente simpátricos en la Cordillera Blanca, Perú

ABSTRACT Knowledge of the ecological requirements, the current extensions, and cover of a species is important for its management conservation, but this information is lacking for many species of Polylepis (ROSACEA). Here we use niche modeling to understand the ecological requirements of two Polylepis species natively found in sympatry within the Huascarán National Park (HNP) (Cordillera Blanca, Peru), Polylepis albicans and P. webebaueri, and produce species distribution maps restricted by forest cover to estimate each species' current cover within the park . Based on presence/absence data collected systematically throughout their local elevational distribution and analyzed using a Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) and generalized linear models (glm), the best models show that P. albicans and P. weberbaueri have different environmental niches and their occupation is maximized at different climatic ranges mainly associated with temperature (annual mean temperature and mean monthly temperature range) and solar radiation during the dry season. P. albicans occupies warmer and drier areas than P. weberbaueri, which leads to a spatial segregation that has implications for the conservation management of each species. However, it is necessary to evaluate if the models described here adequately capture the environmental niche of other populations of P. weberbaueri, or if these could be new species. Our results indicate that within the HNP, the extension of Polylepis forests (~ 24,000 ha; 11,361 ha of P. albicans and 12,627 ha of P. weberbaueri) is significantly greater than that previously reported and confirm that this protected area harbors the greatest extensions of both species in Peru and its proper management is key for their conservation and that of the ecosystems they constitute.

The effect of water table levels and short-term ditch restoration on mountain peatland carbon cycling in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru

Many tropical mountain peatlands in the Andes are formed by cushion plants. These unique cushion plant peatlands are intensively utilized for grazing and are also influenced by climate change, both of which alter hydrologic conditions. Little is known about the natural hydroperiods and greenhouse gas fluxes of these peatlands or the consequences of hydrologic alteration for these fluxes. Therefore, our objectives were to assess how carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes varied across a hydrological gradient caused by ditching and evaluate how short-term carbon cycling responds after rewetting from ditch blocking in a tropical mountain peatland. The study was carried out in Huascaran National Park, Peru using static chamber methods. Comparing reference to highly drained conditions, mid-day net ecosystem exchange (NEE) was higher (1.07 ± 0.06 vs. 0.76 ± 0.11 g CO2 m−2 h−1), and the light compensation point for CO2 uptake was lower. Gas fluxes were relatively stable in the rewetted and reference treatments, with small positive responses of NEE to rising water tables. CH4 emissions averaged 2.76 ± 1.06 mg CH4 m−2 day−1, with negative fluxes at water tables >10 cm below the soil surface, and positive fluxes at higher water levels. Our results indicate that undrained peatlands appear to be carbon sinks, highly drained peatlands were likely carbon sources, and rewetting of moderately drained peatlands increased NEE and the ability to store carbon to undrained reference conditions. Ditching of peatlands will likely increase their susceptibility to negative climate change impacts, and hydrologic restoration could moderate these impacts.

Mapping Mountain Peatlands and Wet Meadows Using Multi-Date, Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru

Wetlands (called bofedales in the Andes of Peru) are abundant and important components of many mountain ecosystems across the globe. They provide many benefits including water storage, high quality habitat, pasture, nutrient sinks and transformations, and carbon storage. The remote and rugged setting of mountain wetlands creates challenges for mapping, typically leading to misclassification and underestimates of wetland extent. We used multi-date, multi-sensor radar and optical imagery (Landsat TM/PALSAR/RADARSAT-1/SRTM DEM-TPI) combined with ground truthing for mapping wetlands in Huascaran National Park, Peru. We mapped bofedales into major wetland types: 1) cushion plant peatlands, 2) cushion plant wet meadows, and 3) graminoid wet meadows with an overall accuracy of 92%. A fourth wetland type was found (graminoid peatlands) but was too rare to map accurately, thus it was combined with cushion peatland to form a single peatland class. Total wetland area mapped in the National Park is 38,444 ha, which is 11% of the park area. Peatlands were the most abundant wetland type occupying 6.3% of the park, followed by graminoid wet meadows (3.5%) and cushion wet meadows (1.3%). These maps will serve as the foundation for improved management, including restoration, and estimates of landscape carbon stocks.

Conservation Conjunctures: Contestation and Situated Consent in Peru's Huascarán National Park

When the Huascaran National Park in the Peruvian highlands was established in 1975, consultation with the local comundidades campesinas (peasant communities) was limited. While no consent was sought or given, prior to park establishment, post-facto attempts to include the surrounding communities in the conservation efforts have produced diverse responses from the local population. This paper reviews the history of this process by discussing three distinct cases in which the Huascaran National Park has devised strategies for negotiating the legitimacy of its control over park resources with neighbouring comunidades campesinas. In examining these park-community dynamics from the standpoint of control over the aesthetic and productive values of natural resources and territory, the article explores the emergence of authority and the exercise of power in conservation. We argue that within the Huascaran National Park, different modalities of governance exist partially and simultaneously, and that conservation conjunctures are historically conditioned sedimentations that continuously shape the park-people relationship. This leads the park to appear as both a paper park and fortress-style conservation entity in different sites and moments. The paper highlights the problem of creating consent post facto in defining the use of landscapes, thereby underscoring the importance of a grounded and historically specific analysis of attempts to create social inclusion in processes framed as development.

Rewriting conservation landscapes: protected areas and glacial retreat in the high Andes

Glacial retreat reveals the unsettling effects of anthropogenic climate change, and challenges deeply seated cultural ideas about static landscapes. Glaciers have thus emerged as key signifiers of environmental loss. Because they are the outcomes of Westernized visions of the relationship between nature and culture, protected areas are important sites for understanding how notions of the Anthropocene come to reshape ideas about the future of glaciated landscapes. This article explores one particular conservation initiative, that of the establishment of the tourist and educational facility known as the Route of Climate Change in Peru’s Huascaran National Park. It asks how we can understand the production of conservation landscapes in a context where the framing of glaciers as an endangered species denies their fluctuating dynamics and imparts to them a directionality toward irreversible change. Focusing on the contentious production of conservation landscapes through interaction between the park administration and a local community, the article is based on ethnographic fieldwork consisting of semi-structured interviews (48), informal conversations, and participant observation over multiple visits to the area between 2013 and 2015. The study finds that while the production of new conservation narratives certainly resituates the sites in time and place, it also produces uncertain environmental futures that may be molded to secure a rapprochement between park administrations and communities based on mutual alignment of conservation and community practices. It is thus argued that an underlying shift in orientation—from preserving what is to countering what might otherwise come to be—results in the production of new imaginaries about conservation landscapes that are both a condition and an outcome of protected area management in times of glacial retreat.

Differential seedling regeneration patterns across forest–grassland ecotones in two tropical treeline species (Polylepis spp.)

AbstractSuccessful forest expansion into grassland can be limited by seed dispersal and adverse conditions for tree seedlings in the grassland environment. In the high‐elevation Andes, human‐induced fragmentation has exacerbated the patchy distribution of Polylepis forests, threatening their unique biological communities and spurring restoration interest. Studies of Polylepis forest extent in Peru suggest that forest borders have remained stable over the past century despite decreasing anthropogenic disturbance, suggesting that tree seedling recruitment is being limited in the open grassland habitat. We studied natural seedling dispersion patterns of Polylepis sericea and Polylepis weberbaueri (Rosaceae) at forest–grassland edges across a range of environmental conditions to examine seedling recruitment and colonization of grasslands in Huascaran National Park (Peru). Using data from 2367 seedlings found in 48 forest–grassland edge plots (15 m × 15 m) at forest patches between 3900–4500 masl, we employed generalized mixed modelling to identify the significant associations of seedling densities with environmental covariates. In addition, we compared these associations to patterns of adult presence on the landscape. Seedling densities were associated with a combination of variables varying within (distance to forest edge) and among (elevation and dry season solar irradiation) plots across the landscape. For both species, seedling densities decreased with increasing distance away from the forest in a manner consistent with short‐distance seed dispersal by wind. Our results suggest that such short‐distance dispersal may slow forest expansion, but that there also appear to be substantial post‐dispersal limitations to seedling establishment in the grassland. Polylepis sericea densities decreased with elevation, while P. weberbaueri increased with elevation and decreased with solar irradiation. Associations of adult presence with elevation and solar irradiation mirrored those of seedling densities. Management of areas with forest patches dominated by these species should consider these differences in their environmental tolerances, particularly during species selection and zonation for reforestation.

Adventure tourism, its environmental impact and mitigation proposal in the quebrada of Quillcayhuanca

The purpose of this study was to investigate adventure tourism in the Quillcayhuanca Gorge, located in the Cordillera Blanca within the Huascaran National Park near the city of Huaraz, and determine how this activity with its different modalities impacts natural resources such as soil, water, air and depredating flora and fauna.It is presented in detail the processing and analysis of the data using as an instrument the survey to the residents of the community of Unchus and its annex Llupa who are the people who know the place and are involved with adventure tourism in Quillcayhuanca. We also performed the direct observation technique and to corroborate the data we used the documentary analysis. The results indicate that adventure tourism (53.7%) is the predominant activity with more than 1500 tourists who visit it annually. The environmental impact is directly related to the activity. The type of adventure tourism that generates the greatest impact is Trekking, with 46.3% and more than 70% of tourists are foreigners.Natural resources are seriously affected. The soil is quite affected (61% consider it so), water with 17.5% and air with 16.9%, because of adventure tourism. At present, programs for the prevention and conservation of the environment in the Quebrada of Quillcayhuanca are insufficient, tourism services are neglected and tourism is scarce.Based on this study, a mitigation proposal has been developed, in which the main impacts generated by adventure tourism are identified, as well as the corrective measures to be implemented by the competent agencies and thus provide a better service to the tourist.

Fire Response to Local Climate Variability: Huascar\xe1n National Park, Peru

In Huascarán National Park (HNP), Peru, grazing and anthropogenic burning have been interacting for decades with natural ignitions and climate variability to reconfigure the fire regimes of the vegetative communities. However, over the last few decades, human alterations to the region’s fire regime were perceived by resource managers to have led to an overall increase in fire occurrence and fire extent. Resource managers are now very concerned about the impacts of increasing anthropogenic fires in the National Park because these fires seem to disrupt ecological processes and tourism. To test these beliefs and examine the fire activity from 2002 to 2014, we used a time series of several different data products including the MODIS Terra and Aqua platforms (Active Fire and Burned Area) as well as local air temperature and precipitation data. The intra-annual distribution of fires in the HNP and its buffer zone (BZ) showed a consistent increase in the number of active fires and burned areas during the dry season (Peruvian winter). The active fire anomalies showed higher fire activity in the HNP over the period 2002 to 2014. However, burned area anomalies showed consistently higher fire activity in the BZ during the high fire years in 2003, 2005, 2010, and 2014. The spatial distribution of areas burned in the HNP and the BZ from 2002 to 2014 showed that most recurrent burning was inside the BZ, which is in compliance with the HNP’s policy but in contradiction with local resource managers’ perceptions. Although human activity may influence local fire dynamics, fire responses seemed to be mainly influenced by local climate oscillations. Our results suggest a clear fire response to local climate and, in particular, to precipitation variability. However, it appears that there was a low fire return interval for any given location and that the total area burned for a given year is relatively small. Therefore, small-scale fires created an appearance of larger fire impacts than actually occur within the HNP and its BZ. In this instance, fire perception and fire reality are not aligning and the new challenge for resource managers is how best to reconcile these two factors to more effectively manage the parklands.

Avian community structure and habitat use of Polylepis forests along an elevation gradient.

BackgroundAs one of the highest forest ecosystems in the world, Polylepis forests are recognized both as center of endemism and diversity along the Andes and as an ecosystem under serious threat from habitat loss, fragmentation, and climate change due to human activities. Effective conservation efforts are limited, in part, by our poor understanding of the ecology and habitat needs of the ecosystem’s flora and fauna.MethodsIn 2014–2015, we studied bird communities and 19 associated local and landscape attributes within five forested glacial valleys within the Cordillera Blanca and Huascaran National Park, Peru. We surveyed birds during the dry (May–August) and wet (January–April) seasons at 130 points distributed along an elevational gradient (3,300–4,700 m) and analyzed our data using Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA).ResultsWe associated a total of 50 species of birds, including 13 species of high conservation concern, with four basic habitat types: (1) Polylepis sericea forests at low elevations, (2) P. weberbaueri forests at high elevations, (3) Puna grassland and (4) shrublands. Four species of conservation priority (e.g., Microspingus alticola) were strongly associated with large forest patches (∼10-ha) of P. sericea at lower elevations (<3,800 m), whereas another four (e.g., Anairetes alpinus) were associated with less disturbed forests of P. weberbaueri at higher elevations (>4,200 m).DiscussionResults suggest two key strategies form the cornerstones of conservation efforts: (a) protect large remnant (>10-ha) P. sericea forests at lower elevations and (b) maintain all relicts of P. weberbaueri, irrespective of size, at high elevations (>4,200 m).

Bosques de Polylepis como Bancos Genéticos para la Restauración Ecológica de los Ecosistemas de Montaña

Actualmente, a altitudes por encima de los 3.000 a 3.500 m, la vegetación de los Andes centrales está dominada por zonas agrícolas, pastizales y zonas arbustivas. Los árboles son escasos y están mayormente representados por especies introducidas de los géneros Eucalyptus y Pinus. Los bosques naturales son escasos y están comúnmente restringidos a localidades especiales, como laderas rocosas o quebradas. Estos relictos de bosque son dominados por especies del género Polylepis, aunque en la mayoría de estos bosques están presentes otras especies leñosas como Buddleja, Clethra, Gynoxys, Podocarpus o Prumnopitys. Estos bosques representan uno de los ecosistemas más amenazados del mundo, pero al mismo tiempo cumplen un rol central en la ecología altoandina, como hábitat de muchas especies de plantas y animales, permitiendo conservar la biodiversidad, que a su vez es importante fuente de recursos para los habitantes locales. El género Polylepis se distribuye a lo largo de la Cordillera de los Andes, desde el norte de Venezuela en el estado de Lara hasta Tarapacá en Chile y Córdoba en la Argentina. Estos bosques relictos constituyen ecosistemas únicos para estas regiones y son prueba saltante de que antiguamente han cubierto gran parte de la región alta de los Andes. En la Región Ancash, especialmente en el Parque Nacional Huascarán, estos bosques en la actualidad vienen soportando una gran presión por parte de los habitantes de las comunidades campesinas aledañas, ya que constituyen su principal fuente energética. Además del uso del suelo para la actividad agrícola (los habitantes “aperturan” áreas dentro y al borde de los bosques), otra actividad negativa es el sobre pastoreo (ganado ovino, vacuno, caprino y equino), que no permite que el bosque se regenere naturalmente.

Quantifying groundwater–surface water interactions in a proglacial valley, Cordillera Blanca, Peru

AbstractA myriad of downstream communities and industries rely on streams fed by both groundwater discharge and glacier meltwater draining the Cordillera Blanca, Northern Peruvian Andes, which contains the highest density of glaciers in the tropics. During the dry season, approximately half the discharge in the region's proglacial streams comes from groundwater. However, because of the remote and difficult access to the region, there are few field methods that are effective at the reach scale to identify the spatial distribution of groundwater discharge. An energy balance model, Rhodamine WT dye tracing, and high‐definition kite‐borne imagery were used to determine gross and net groundwater inputs to a 4‐km reach of the Quilcay River in Huascaran National Park, Peru. The HFLUX computer programme (http://hydrology.syr.edu/hflux.html) was used to simulate the Quilcay River's energy balance using stream temperature observations, meteorological measurements, and kite‐borne areal photography. Inference from the model indicates 29% of stream discharge at the reach outlet was contributed by groundwater discharge over the study section. Rhodamine WT dye tracing results, coupled with the energy balance, show that approximately 49% of stream water is exchanged (no net gain) with the subsurface as gross gains and losses. The results suggest that gross gains from groundwater are largest in a moraine subreach but because of large gross losses, net gains are larger in the meadow subreaches. These insights into pathways of groundwater–surface water interaction can be applied to improve hydrological modelling in proglacial catchments throughout South America. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Lasting Legacies: Conservation and Communities at Huascaran National Park, Peru

This article uses a case-study approach to investigate the challenges of protected area (PA) management for Huascaran National Park in the Peruvian Andes. The park is analyzed by situating the timing of establishment of the park boundaries within the context of two historical Peruvian events: agrarian reform (1969) and an earthquake (1970). Interviews and narratives from community members and stakeholders associated with park delimitation and management were used for the study. Analysis of narratives revealed that the establishment of park boundaries, the legal definition used for the park, and land use restrictions contribute to diminished support for the park from surrounding communities. Community and national institutions negotiate the spatial boundary of conservation in Huascaran National Park while engaging with historical narratives that invoke environmental constraints and acts of resistance.

The effects of climate change on people in the Andes: melting glaciers means drought, tension and conflict for Peru’s mountain people in and around Huascarán National Park

The effects of climate change on people in the Andes: melting glaciers means drought, tension and conflict for Peru’s mountain people in and around Huascarán National Park

El néctar de especies de Puya como recurso para picaflores Altoandinos de Ancash, Perú

En la región altoandina de Ancash la mayor diversidad de flores ornitófilas se encuentran en ambientes de matorral, en contraste a roquedales y pajonales, en los que encontramos rodales de bromelias del género Puya, cuyo néctar podría constituir un importante recurso para picaflores altoandinos en estos tipos de ambiente. Para documentar esta hipótesis, entre el 2004 y el 2005 se realizaron un total de 264 horas de observación de picaflores de dos rodales de Puya, ubicados encima de los 3000 m de altitud. El primer rodal fue de Puya raimondiien un pajonal del Parque Nacional Huascarán (9º39’ S—77º13’ W), el segundo fue de Puya rauhii en roquedales del Callejón de Conchucos (8º10’ S—77º52’ W). La frecuencia de visita de los picaflores a las inflorescencias de Puyafue evaluada desde 10 puntos fijos de observación, además capturas con redes de niebla permitieron identificar el polen de su pico y frente. En P. raimondiise identificaron cuatro especies de Trochilidae alimentándose de su néctar (Oreotrochilus stolzmanni, Patagona gigas, Aglaeactis cupripennisy Metallura phoebe), siendo O. stolzmannila especie más frecuentemente avistada (60%). El 80% de las muestras de polen obtenidas de estos picaflores correspondían a P. raimondii. En el rodal de Puya rauhii se identificaron diez especies de Trochilidae (Colibri coruscans, Oreotrochilus stolzmanni, Patagona gigas, Aglaeactis cupripennis, Coeligena iris, Chalcostigma stanleyi, Lesbia nuna, Myrtis fanny, Metallura phoebe yMetallura tyrianthina), siendo las especies con mayores avistamientos M. phoebe (26%), C. coruscans (21%) y P. gigas (17%). El 31% de las muestras de polen obtenidas de estos picaflores correspondían a Puya. Las especies altoandinas de Puyaproporcionan un importante recurso alimenticio para picaflores, en especial para los de grandes altitudes donde la diversidad de plantas disminuye.

A New Species of Puya (Bromeliaceae) from Central Peru

lutheri is described as a new species of Bromeliaceae: Pitcairnioideae. The diagnostic characteristics distinguishing it from P. fosteriana, the closest related species, are given. While studying specimens of Bromeliaceae from ISC, I was unable to determine one of with the available literature (e.g., Smith & Downs, 1974). The collector wrote Puya aff. clava-herculis, while Harry Luther from SEL stated Puya sp. nov., aff. pygmaea L. B. Sm. et P. cryptantha Cuatr. I agree with Luther that the present specimen respresents a new species, but disagree in its alliance. After a critical check of many possibilities in the Flora Neotropica keys, and after comparison with the descriptions, respectively, I am convinced that the new species is allied to P. fosteriana L. B. Smith because of the overall similarity of both species (see also Foster, 1984). Using subkey IV of Smith & Downs's monograph (1974) and applying the given characteristics rigorously, the present specimen keys out as P. trianae Baker from Colombia. But if one assumes that the outer bracts conspicuousely serrate, is instead or very obscurely serrate in a closely related species, one reaches P. fosteriana L. B. Smith (1950). The serration of bracts is not a characteristic to infer natural alliances, but only a tool in an artificial key to separate taxa. lutheri W. Till, sp. nov. TYPE: Peru. Ancash: Yungay Province, Huascaran National Park, Quebrada Huaripampa between Quebrada Paria and Morococha, 77?33'W, 8?56'S, alt. 3,930-4,500 m, 13 Jan. 1985, Smith, Sanchez & Vidaurre 9196 (holotype, ISC 376409; isotype, MO not seen). Figure 1. A P. fosteriana L. B. Smith vaginis foliorum angustioribus, laminis foliorum angustioribus subtus adpresso lepidotis spinis brevioribus, scapo longiori, inflorescentia simplici minore angustioribusque albido-lanuginosa, sepalis minoribus et petalis angustioribus pallide coeruleis differt. About 1 m tall (according to Smith); leaves to 50 cm long; sheaths broadly triangular ovate, ca. 5 cm long and 5 cm wide, pale stramineous and glabrous on both faces, the margins entire except for the short spinulose transition with the blades; blades narrowly triangular, 25-30 mm wide at the base, evenly tapering to a point, glabrous above, densely pale appressed-lepidote beneath, the margins laxly but coarsely antrorse-spinose, spines dark brown, strictly to slightly curved, 4-6 mm long; scape unknown but estimated from the complete height to be ca. 60 cm long, 15 mm diam. below the inflorescence; scape bracts unknown; inflorescence ca. 20 cm long, ca. 5 cm diam., dense, simple, whitish lanuginose; floral bracts covering the flowers except for the petals, their sheaths ovate, ca. 6 cm long and 3 cm wide, membranaceous, brownish when dry, densely white lanuginose, the margins entire, their blades long-acuminate, laxly short-spinose, and reflexed, glabrescent; sepals linear-lanceolate, broadly acute, ca. 27 mm long and 5 mm wide, rigidly membranaceous, adaxially glabrous, abaxially densely whitish lanuginose, free, the posterior ones slightly carinate; petals spathulate, ca. 45 mm long, unappendaged, their blades about 9 mm wide, pale blue (according to Smith). Anthers versatile, 5 mm long and 1 mm diam., dark brown when dry. Ovary conical, 10 mm long and 3 mm diam., style slender, 20 mm long, stigma lobes twisted. Terrestrial in grassland with rare scattered shrubs or stands of Polylepis sp., Queshque bank of rivulet between two moraines. lutheri differs from P. fosteriana in its narrower leaf sheaths and blades (the blades in P. lutheri being appressed-lepidote beneath), the shorter leaf spines, the longer scape, the simple, smaller and narrower, whitish lanuginose inflorescence, the smaller sepals, and the narrower, pale blue petals. lutheri and P. fosteriana both occur at high elevations (Foster, 1984). The populations of the species are separated by a distance of about 1,400 km. This fact should not be over-emphasized, as a similar disjunction is found in raimondii Harms. The species is dedicated to Harry E. Luther from the Bromeliad Identification Center at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota, Florida, who first recognized it as a novelty. Acknowledgments. I thank Marshall R. Crosby (MO) and two anonymous reviewers for critically reading the manuscript and offering valuable suggestions. NOVON 2: 443-444. 1992. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.124 on Sat, 23 Jul 2016 04:46:14 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms