Tillandsia fusciculata, catalogue of Bromeliad plants

A catalogue of Bromeliads used for various projects by - Lloyd Godman

This is a catalogue of bromeliads used by Lloyd godman for his various installations and photosynthesis projects - the collection of pants he accessed in New Zealand from 1996 - 2004 was collected from a wide range of sources, while most were brought from Greens Bromeliads, some were also donated by the Dunedin Botanical Gardens. Later in 2004 these plants were either sold or given away with his move to Australia.

Lloyd is at present re-establishing his collection where he now lives in Melbourne.

A Lexicon of Bromeliads: A resource by Lloyd Godman

Genus - Tillandsia: Sub-Family - Tillandsioideae: Family - Bromeliad

Tillandsias are regarded as true air plants and as such are among the most unusual of the Bromeliad family. They range from bulbous forms and grass like structures to silver tufted masses. Typically they grow where there is free air movement like high treetop environments or across open rock faces, and often they are heavily covered in silver trichomes that help reflect the high levels of sun light they receive in these locations. While some tolerate temperatures as low as 5 degrees C (40 degrees F), or even lower, most prefer temperatures of around 10-32 degrees C (50-32 degrees F). While they require high levels of humidity, they need to dry out quickly and completely between misting or watering. As the trichome scales open to absorb moisture and close to retain it, it is important that the plants are given time to dry out and most plant deaths occur because of over watering.

Plants are marked NZ for those collected in New Zealand - or Aust - for the new plants collected since coming to Australia

Tillandsia fasciculata

Family: Bromeliad

Sub-Family: Tillandsioideae:

Genus: Tillandsia

Sub-Genus:

Native distribution: As a species, T. fasciculata found across a wide range of habitat from from sea level to 1,800 metres. It is native to Central America, Mexico, the West Indies, northern South America (Venezuela, Colombia, Suriname, French Guiana, northern Brazil), and the southeastern United States (Georgia, Florida). It is commonly known as the giant airplant or cardinal airplant.

Habit: T. fasciculata comes in hundreds of forms and hybrids The plant forms a spreading rosette that is tight at the base and can hold some water.

Foliage: The many green leaves are stiff, long and pointed, covered with fine silver trichomes on the underside and infused with a red brown at the base.

Flowers: The sword like inflorescence rises high above the crown, is red on the bottom half while green at the top. The long and tubular mauve to indigo flowers have protruding stamens, the stigma is white and the petals are not keeled and emerge alternately from both sides.

Seed:

Pups:

Cultivation: T. fasciculata is an adaptable plant withstanding drought, wind rain and sun and easy to grow. Like most Tillandsias, they respond to bright light and fresh air. T. fasciculata is prolific, often producing 4-6 pups.

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: