Family: Bromeliad
Sub-Family: Tillandsioideae:
Genus: Tillandsia
Sub-Genus:
Native distribution: Tillandsia duratii is native to Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia where it is found growing on rocks, trees and shrubs thriving in both sun and shade.
Habit: The plant does not really produce roots but uses its curiously curved and twisted stems while the heavily lepidote (scruffy scaled leafed) coated curved leaves twist around trees and rocks to anchor the plant to the host. As new leaves from the older leaves bend downward to create a skirt like form.
Foliage:
Flowers: As the flower stem forms it is green but it gradually turns to a wheat-colour and at this point it can seem that it has somehow died. Don't cut it off as it will produce lavender flowers which are highly fragrant. When fully formed the stalk is about 300 - 400mm and emerges from the center of the plant but rather than sitting erect the spike is pushed aside by further growth of further leaves.
Seed:
Pups:
Cultivation: It is able to withstand both rain and drought.
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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