Family: Bromeliad
Sub-Family: Tillandsioideae
Genus: Tillandsia
Sub-Genus:
Native distribution: Tillandsia xiphioides grows epiphytically and is native to Bolivia, Brazil,, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. There are several varieties of the species.
Habit: The plant has a stout appearance and grows into twisted clumps with thick roots
Foliage: The leaves are green silver and quite thick, channeled 4 to 6" long 100 - 150mm
Flowers: The inflorescence is simple and about 2-3" long. Tillandsia xiphioides produces 2 -10 flowers, they are huge, white with wave like petals and citrus- carnation scented
Seed:
Pups:
Cultivation: It likes bright light and is a little more susceptible to rot from being too wet for too long and to colder temps. A trick is to hang upside down for the cooler months.
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: The plant is sort after and rare in cultivation.
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