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Tillandsia xerographica


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Danger. The blood-sucking reduviid bug Triatoma ryckmani is a carrier of a parasite that causes Chagas or American trypanosomiasis a potentially fatal infectious disease. Unfortunately the bug inhabits this epiphyte in the semiarid regions of Guatemala and probably elsewhere. “In our study site, we investigated 30 T. xerographica, and 53 specimens of T. ryckmani were found. Most T. ryckmani (68.5%) were unfed. If T. xerographica is commercialized without adequate inspections, accidental introduction of T. ryckmani to homes and to other countries may occur. (Marroquín et al. 2004.)

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Derrick:

 

I would urge you to investigate this a bit more before slapping a "Danger" label on it. The authors of this paper were being over-cautious, given the state of commercial traffic in wild plants of this species at that time.

 

Tillandsia xerographica was listed on CITES App. II more than a two decades ago (06/92). Large commercial shipments of wild plants ended ages back, although the odd "suitcase" smuggler may still bring a few back now and then from any of the range states. Currently, this species is widely grown from seed and from chemically-treated mother plants induced to produce large numbers of pups (they normally produce 1-3) at well-run, registered commercial nurseries in Guatemala and elsewhere. While the range states include Mexico (dry forests in southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas), El Salvador, western Honduras and Guatemala, most of the plants in the commercial trade have traditionally originated in central and SE Guatemala.

 

When they were unprotected and abundant in the early and mid-1970s, I handled several thousand wild-collected xerographicas and other Tropical Dry Forest phytotelms in the upper Motagua River Valley, the site of the study mentioned above. While several genera of reduviids were often noted on some plants, the biggest danger to collectors was the almost invariable presence of numbers of stinging ants, scorpions and a very aggressive ctenid spider sp. All of these critters proved disturbingly willing to bite/sting when annoyed, so adult plants were always handled with some care prior to be washed and fumigated. As a rule, I am very careful around assassin and kissing bugs since the bites of the former are shockingly painful and the latter often carry Chagas in Guatemala (but they are much shyer and reluctant to bite during the day than assassin bugs).

 

In any event, even at that time (1975-1985), when hundreds of thousands of wild- collected xerographicas were flowing into the international nursery trade every year, I never heard of any issues with nursery workers getting bit or stung by anything life-threatening since standard export protocol involved dipping these plants in vats of organophosphate pesticides (esp. malathion and parathion) for >12 hours. This treatment, coupled with extensive physical cleaning done by employees at exporters' farms, and often vacuum or gas treatments at inspection points at port of entry, pretty much eliminated the chance that any arthropod pest made it past phytosanitary controls at their destination.

 

The current production and source of these plants is rigorouslymonitored/inventoried by the Guatemalan wildlife/CITES authorities (CONAP), and the bleed from wild-collected plants into the back doors of the local nursery trade appears to be minimal (pers. obs.). While it is unlikely that the species will ever recover to its former population densities, it has begun to become conspicuous again as a flowering plant at former well-known locales in its central Guatemalan range.

 

In short, I would put the chance that a reduviid infected with Chagas biting a hobbyist or horticulturist who has sourced a commercially-grown plant from any major, reputable bromeliad nursery in the Developed World at somewhere very close to zero. However, Chagas is potentially going to be a very real and ever-increasing problem in parts of the S and  SW United States now, from infected human individuals from LatAm crossing the border as undocumented transits, where they may come into contact with our native populations of Triatoma spp. when bedding down overnight near pack rat nests in the desert. There is quite a bit of recent literature on this subject available online.

 

As for the danger posed by reduviid hitchhikers on the odd poached plant? The primary danger to tourists collecting bromeliads in the area mentioned above is that it is, a). quite illegal and the police and/or army will most certainly arrest you if they see you doing it or stop you at check points and find bromeliads in your rental car and, b. it is a very "hot" zone for narcotics trafficking activity and a number of adventurous foreigners have met violent deaths there over the past few years by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

Cheers,

 

J

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Thank you Jay, this is very interesting and informative. However, any information that may save lives, should i feel be promulgated.  I am not sure about this group because the aliases used herein, do not tell us much, but in the much larger Facebook group, we have an ever increasing number of members south of the USA border and I do wonder how well informed are their city dwellers (inputs tend to be minimal), whom might very well be tempted to see bromeliads in nature and be further tempted.  Furthermore because of recent incidents of wild plant stealing (Myrmecodia beccarii a fully 'protected' species) in Australia, I am quite concerned that my promotion of myrmecophytes may be having some very unfortunate consequences.  Thus any information that might deter wild collecting should I feel be promoted.

   The bromeliad hobby is very strong in these antipodes especially in Australia and numbers of those growers travel across the Pacific, being a little better informed must be a benefit to them. 

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Understood. But please clarify that it is only handling wild-collected xerographicas that pose any potential health risk. This plant is widely sold throughout the world as a very popular, artificially-propagated, large atmospheric-type "air plant"  from specialty nurseries and garden shops. I would not wish to see the web pick this up as "DANGER - Tillandsia xerographica" and inadvertently cool the demand for the plant.

 

FYI, kissing bugs are everywhere in that ecosystem...in houses, in spiny-tailed iguana burrows, in columnar cacti, under rocks, etc.

 

J

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Understood. But please clarify that it is only handling wild-collected xerographicas that pose any potential health risk. This plant is widely sold throughout the world as a very popular, artificially-propagated, large atmospheric-type "air plant"  from specialty nurseries and garden shops. I would not wish to see the web pick this up as "DANGER - Tillandsia xerographica" and inadvertently cool the demand for the plant.

 

FYI, kissing bugs are everywhere in that ecosystem...in houses, in spiny-tailed iguana burrows, in columnar cacti, under rocks, etc.

 

J

That would mean that I am speaking for plant nurseries, something of which I have almost zero experience, so I am surely not qualified to do so. However, as I have pointed out in the Facebook group, it seems wise to buy only from trusted businesses. I have little faith in bio-security controls, even here in isolated and very bio-fortress New Zealand, there is a steady stream of pests that somehow manage to get in here. I am also aware of the South American weevil that is decimating native tillandsias possibly to extinction in the southern USA.

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Derrick:

 

I assume that we are talking at cross purposes. I am not a spokesman for any commercial interest, nor do I expect you to be. But this is a major item in the international bromeliad trade, and this type of warning from what is obviously a solid source on a well-curated forum seems likely to create the misimpression that there may be a real danger in owning this species. Frankly, I just think it's unwise to over-emphasize what is most assuredly an outlier risk to anyone living outside the range states (many of whom, BTW, are exposed to Chagas vectors all the time in their homes). Over the past four and a half decades, millions of these plants have made their way through the international tropical ornamentals trade to all corners of the world. We would most surely have heard of people getting bitten and infected with Chagas by stowaway kissing bugs in xerographicas by now.

 

Besides populations thriving in sylvatic hosts in parts of the south and southwest, Chagas is known to be widely present in the US. In July of last year the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the now infamous CDC) put its estimates at >300,000 people in the USA infected with the disease, i.e, roughly one in every 1,000 people here is living with Chagas. Given that many recent immigrants from Mexico and Central America often live in the shadows and may have little contact with health workers outside of the emergency room, this number may be on the low side.

 

I most certainly hope that no-one finds and publishes an arthropod vector/s for a disease transmissible to humans lurking in water storing hydnophytines. Could it be that there may be (are?) mosquito larva that, as adults, transmit run-of-the-mill diseases like malaria, yellow fever and dengue fever (like, BTW, all tank bromeliads) lurking in our tropical ant plants? If so, perhaps we will see this fledgling interest in growing them that we are trying to nurture here shrivel before a paranoid public.

 

What is good for the goose, is most assuredly good for the gander. Many phytotelms across the Neotropics are known harbor dangerous disease vectors. Just a guess, but would assume something similar occurs in parts of Malesia, such as in some lowland nepenthes. Hopefully, the ecology of our plants and their associated arthropod fauna will always be more a source of fascination than of fear.

 

Again, I understand your concerns, but I fear that the message may end up twisted and augmented by the beast that is group-think internet omniscience.

 

(I'll now put my soap box back in the garage ;))

 

Cheers,

 

J

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Hello Jay. I hope people will keep things in perspective, for example I doubt if hyperbolic news of this nature (http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/19/killer-spider-supermarket-shopping) will have any effect on the world Banana market, except perhaps for more care from the various responsible authorities, at least until the incident is forgotten by the masses.

  Regarding T. xerographica, I see infinitesimal risks to hobbyists in places such as the USA,  if they buy their plants from reputable businesses, that I trust are aware of ANY possible threats either health wise or environmental.  Indeed, your very well informed comments in this regard are most reassuring . 

  The spread of phytotelm bromeliads throughout the Old World will surely have enormous impacts on future ecosystems and their evolution, something that I trust will prove beneficial to mother nature, which has been provided with very new tools. It may help to counter the depredations of ignorant humans, but only time will tell. 

  Here in NZ, Fiji and elsewhere in the region, we have a native phytotelm, so possible effects here may be ameliorated, but again only time will tell. Mosquitoes have been recorded breeding in Alcantarea regina in north NZ, and ever warmer temperatures raise interesting possibilities. Its going to be a fascinating century or so. One hopes that future science will protect us from our current follies. I suspect the next large El Nino may be quite revealing to climate change doubters. A possible one this year seems likely to be a mild event.

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