Family: Bromeliad
Sub-Family: Tillandsioideae
Genus: Tillandsia
Sub-Genus:
Native distribution: Tillandsia streptophylla is an epiphytic plant that grows on trees on the margins of prairies or savannas in Jamaica, Mexico, British Honduras, and Honduras at altitudes from sea level to about 350 feet.
Habit: This interesting species has the curious habit of twisting and curling its leaves into a mass. As its roots are few, these curling leaves become the plants chief means of support, twisting around branches etc. In the sun, this effect is pronounced and the plant grows like a ball, the arched leaves curving back, their tips entangling one another and any twigs or branches. In the shade, the leaves become longer and straighter, giving the plant an entirely different appearance.
Foliage:
Flowers: The flower stalk, 1/2 inch long, bears ten to twenty spikes containing many lavender petals that appear above delicate pink bracts and the flowering plant may reach a height of as much as 450 cm.
Seed:
Pups:
Cultivation:
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:
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