Why Am I into Dyckias?

Dyckia domfelicianensis
In fact a Dyckia hebdingii relative....

Dyckia got my heart and soul since long ago in 1983 after the biggest registered Itajaí River flood. When the waters recessed, and deposited a Dyckia brevifolia on our small river shore.
The plant was found by my mother Izabel and in fact it is the biggest brevifolia found up to now.
The plant is still with me. Our farm was right in the middle of Dyckia brevifolia habitat by the mighty Itajaí River in Santa Catarina Ibirama.
Since then I ´ve kept Dyckias. This brevifolia and some Dyckia ibiramensis. We do not even know they were Dyckias and we called them Gravatás.
The region ia most rich in bromeliads and even so we didn´t suuspect it was one as it never rots after blooming. We thought it was something else.
The ibiramensis were used to prevent my mother´s peacocks from gulping down all the rose buds from the rose garden. There were Dyckia fences all around the rose beds.The birds were kept free during the day and by the night they would perch inside the safety of a well guarded poultry. During the nights many carnivores would kill them even small felines and the Sussuarana that used to live there.
Dyckias fascinates me and allure me for they are:
- many blooms bromeliads...
- extra long lived beings...
- weird and odd enough to awake the desire of learning in me...
- dwellers of the most inhospitable environments...
- almost unknown here in Brazil...
- mostly Brazilian.
- more than beautiful and at the very same time intriguing...
..and many more reasons I have to keep them.
All we know about Dyckias is just a very small part of what is left to be known.
We have only just begun to understand Dyckias.
We already learned they are a challenge to any taxonomist.
They adore water! Some live under meters of water for up to 40 days. Dyckia brevifolia populations in Blumenau - Santa Catarina do that during some floods.
They are very good at the table and eat lots of their food.
They built their own food in nature as they gather crude material with their leaves.
They never get rid of the older leaves. In fact they are precious to the plant surviving.
They are very long lived.
They did not climbed any mountains but mountains were formed with them.
They are extreme Sun adorers.
They are sex maniac and do not count till two to fall in love to strangers.
They are long lived and we found a Dyckia encholirioides almost 1000 years old
here in Praia do Erwino.
There is no one to be bought here. They are not on sale anywhere within Brazil.
When some appear is just a welsh and ever hybrid.
They are all at risk of disappearing, extinction.
Their time on Earth seems to be getting to an end and the plant somehow knows as it is getting into some tricks never before seen like a desperate final act. Some Dyckias are turning into several very different species we learned to call varieties. This is a way they found to survive to the new challenges in their environment.
Dyckias are great, some Dyckia flowers are even worth mention and are scented.