Art by Alice Tangerini: Navia aliciae

From Plant Press Vol. 6 No. 3 from July 2003.

This species of Navia was one of a group of Venezuelan bromeliads given to Alice Tangerini to draw by Harold Robinson and Lyman Smith in 1982 for publication in the journal Acta Botanica. After drawing several of the specimens Tangerini was skeptical of some of the characters used to distinguish the species. After some investigating, she found new characters separating it from its relative, Navia nubicola, and thus had a species named in her honor. A copy of a letter, found with the drawing, written by Smith to Jim Luteyn reads, “…with her deft fingers and sharp eyes, she discovered some characters which altered our concepts considerably, hence, Navia aliciae.”