Family: Bromeliad
Sub-Family: Tillandsioideae:
Genus: Tillandsia
Sub-Genus:
Native distribution: This bulbous airplant, is found across a wide area from Southern Mexico and the West Indies to Columbia and eastern Brazil, where it grows on trees in open woods, in dense forests, in mangrove thickets along the coast, and on lianas on the shores of rivers from sea level to an altitude of 1,000 m.
Habit: Over time, the plant creates masses of plants forming a larger eccentric clump. Each plant is distinguished for its thick, bulbous base, where the tightly over lapped leaves writhe, contort, and spread out as the plant grows. These bright green leaves, 2.5cm wide at their base and about 15 cm inches long, resemble tapering twisted pieces of wire, but on closer inspection have a longitudinal fluting that is so tight the leaf wraps right around on itself to form the wire shape. This species is considered ageotropic, meaning it grows up, down, sideways, etc. In the wild they are normally found growing horizontally or upside down to prevent the bulb from rotting, which is also a haven for ants (myrmecophytic), so don’t worry about keeping the plant upright.
Foliage: While the base of each leaf is covered with silver trichomes they are far less visible on the tapered leaf ends
Flowers: The erect flower spike is red and very short; the tubular flowers have bright violet petals. While the plant is usually 60 – 150cm high, in Jamaica, there is a large form with a bulbous body 23cm in circumference and reaching 40cm inches in height.
Seed:
Pups:
Cultivation: The plant appears to grow well in dappled shade and responds to humidity - so mist it regularly in hotter conditions in the early morning or evening - avoid misting or watering in direct hot sun - water much less so in cooler conditions. Watering in the heat of the day in summer can burn the plant. My experience shows it can withstand temperatures up to 45 degrees C for a short period and down to near freezing in winter, again for a short period.
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.)
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