Family: Bromeliad
Sub-Family: Tillandsioideae
Genus: Tillandsia
Sub-Genus:
Native distribution: T. stricta is widely distributed and is native to Trinidad, Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, Argentina and Brazil where it is found from sea level to an altitude of 3,500ft.
Habit: T. stricta is a variable plant with many locally occurring varieties where left texture, colour and size have evolved due to habitat. The many leaves form a small rosette from which the flower stem emerges.
Foliage: The recurving leathery leaves, 3 -6 inches long are often covered with silver trichomes that can sometimes for in cross bands. In this form the leaves are harder and less flexible.
Flowers: T. stricta forms a short erect scape that is erect or gently recurved. The inflorescence has white to rose bracts while the flower petals are blue or violet that changes to a more red as they mature.
Seed:
Pups:
Cultivation: This is a hardy plant that responds to good light and regular misting.
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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