Family: Bromeliad
Sub-Family: Tillandsioideae:
Genus: Tillandsia
Sub-Genus: Anoplophytum
Native distribution: Tillandsia aeranthos is found from Uruguay, to Argentina Paraguay and Brazil where it grows as an epiphyte on trees often bordering rivers and also found growing in colonies on rock near sea level.
Habit: It is a small branching, caulescent plant about 22cm high that produces few roots but forms a colony that hold the plant has to the support
Foliage: broad but quickly tapering leaves. These concave leaves are quite stiff and grayish green in colour with a slight purple tint.
Flowers: The inflorescence spike extends above the leaves which has purple rose bracts and about 5-20 small blue violet flowers - the plant is a more reluctant bloomer than the larger plant.
Seed:
Pups: The plant is a regular pup producer and can do so without flowering.
Cultivation: As the old dead foliage can hold water and rot the plant it can be a good idea to remove this periodically.
Fertilization: A mist every week with Epiphyites Delight or Epsom salts during the growing season will help the plant.
( Epiphyte’s Delight fertilizer was developed for a special reason. Nitrogen promotes foliar growth. If you have Tillandsias, Orchids, or other epiphytes and you feed them, take a look at the nitrogen content. If it’s high in urea, the plants can’t use it because the urea needs a bacteria in soil to break it down into ammonia and nitrates. Since the epiphytes don’t have any soil they can’t break down the urea. It was for this reason that we had Epiphyte’s Delight formulated. It contains only ammoniacal and nitrate nitrogen which is immediately accessible and usable by the plants.)
Availability: Rare and it is smaller than the regular Tillandsia aeranthos, it is about half the size and it has more leaves It can produce offsets all year, it clumps rapidly and forms an attractive dense ball in just a couple of years
More information HERE
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