Family: Bromeliad
Sub-Family: Tillandsioideae:
Genus: Tillandsia
Sub-Genus: Tillandsia
Native distribution: Tillandsia balbisiana is a myrmecophytic (mir-meh-coe-FIH-tick - a plant that lives in a mutualistic association with a colony of ant. the species in native to Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, the West Indies, and Florida
Habit: The plant forms a pseudo- bulb at the base with thin leaves
Foliage: a tall graceful plant with leaves that are long, flat, tough, thin. As it grows quite tall, the leaves are quite, floppy and curve downward.
Flowers: The spike is long and tends to be all shades of red and multi tipped, the flowers are violet.
Seed:
Pups:
Cultivation: It has a most interesting shape and is easy to grow. The plant prefers bright light, high humidity, and frequent misting when the weather is hot and/or dry. Because of the floppy leaves it almost always looks thirsty, don’t overdo and be sure to soak upside down if soaking. Provide a good breeze for drying.
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: Not common in cultivation
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