Today I planted three alcantara bromeliads. These can grow pretty big… about 6 feet wide and may take anywhere between 8 to 20 years to put out an inflorescence. They grow wild in the Atlantic Forest in South America on the rocky cliffs between the cracks with very little resources. One of the three I planted is a Alcantara ‘Rick Cairns’ odordata X vinicolor, most likely named after the person who created this hybrid. The other two are called Alcantara imperialis.
The genus Alcantarea is named after the last Emperor of Brazil, Pedro II, aka The Magnanimous, aka Pedro di Alcantara who devoted his life to culture and science, spoke 14 different languages and a monarch that abolished slavery.
Originally posted on 2021-10-23, part of the daily planting journal behind Ha’a Chocolate’s food forest on Hawai’i Island.