A large growing hybrid that starts off green when young and develops a red veneer with spots of yellow. Matures at 24 inches across. Grows best in bright filtered light.

*VIPP plants are Offsets

A beautiful plant that Tropiflora helped introduce to cultivation. Native to the same mountainous region of central Colombia which produces ospinae and chrysostachys, there is absolutely nothing that compares to this plant. The foliage is very tough and is various shades of green, with brown and black reticulations, mottling and markings. The effect is almost like that of a ‘Silk’ plant so unique is the pattern. Does not much resemble typical ospinae, the plants are bigger, fuller with wider leaves and do not pup as much as the typical form. The inflorescence is yellow and well branched. Thrives in normal bromeliad mix or even bare root.

A small growing Aechema recurvata hybrid by Lisa Vinzant. Olive green with dark leaf tips that turn blue with age. Produces a short inflorescence of pink. Matures at 10 inches tall. Grows best in bright filtered light.

*VIPP plants are Offsets

First it should be noted that there is no such thing as Tillandsia tomasellii officially. This taxa has been combined with xerographica and is for all practical purposes, that plant. However, it bears little resemblance to a ‘typical’ xerographica.

This plant more closely resembles Tillandsia fasciculata in general aspect, same basic shape, narrow, silvery leaves, etc. The inflorescence however does resemble xerographica, a tall, well branched spike of yellow. A possible hybrid? Maybe, but for now, we are keeping this plant with its old name.

By the way, our plants originated in Guatemala, not Oaxaca, Mexico where tomasellii was first found.

Tillandsia stricta The soft-leaved form from Brazil. Mature at about 3 to 4in, has fine green to reddish-tinted leaves and will flower with vivid rose-pink bracts and blue flowers.

Tillandsia paleacea v. apurimacensis  A small silvery plant that blooms purple. Cultivation is easy, grow mounted or simply hang on a string in a breezy, bright spot. Water infrequently and fertilize modestly.

This plant was imported in the early 1980s from Guatemala and came in mixed with Tillandsia caput-medusae. When this plant flowered it was obvious to us that it was a hybrid and we consulted with Harry Luther who agreed that it was likely a caput-medusae x brachycaulos natural hybrid. Until 2013 we had been growing this plant under that name.

I recently submitted a photo of it to Derek Butcher and Geoffrey Lawn of the Hybrid Registry and Derek wrote me back saying “You have the original T. brachycaulos var multiflora see attached. However the botanists decided it was a natural hybrid which I maintain should be in alpha order because you do not know mother thus brachycaulos x caput-medusae. So we are in a quandary.

Under ICBN rules your plant has a ‘name’. I am suggesting we stretch the rules and under the ICNCP rules call your plant ‘Zacapa‘ linking it to the Lyman Smith variety and thus the Field herb specimen.” And so we are. This plant has grown much larger under cultivated conditions and maintains a nice coloration. A choice plant.

A species with lanceolate leaves forming a small plant 4″ to 6" in diameter with a full round rosette shape.  The spiny, wavy margined brown-green leaves are striped with shades of brown and cream.  The undersides of the leaves have light dusting of white scurf.

A suspected natural hybrid of (aeranthos x bergeri) that turned up in a shipment of bergeri from Argentina many years ago. A caulescent plant with stiff, gray leaves on a 6 inch stem, branching freely and forming large clusters. 

The inflorescence is a 3 to 4 inch long scape with deep rose pink bracts and dark, inky blue flowers. There are other Tillandsias of the same cross, but this one is quite different, deserving its own name.

Similar species to compacta, but larger and (we think) nicer. A large grower with light green, slightly mottled, spineless leaves which flush deep red with white speckles in the center when blooming. Pups are stoloniferous and upright.

(Blooming photo courtesy of Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies)

*VIPP plants are Offsets

A lithophytic Tillandsia species from the vicinity of El Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico at about 5,300 feet of altitude. Considered a distinct variety of the Tillandsia mitlaensis from near the same area. That form is more of a fasciculate, stemless lithophyte while the variety tulensis is distinctly caulescent. The leaves narrower and smaller than the typical species, with appressed silvery-white scales as opposed to dense pruinose scales of the typical form.

The inflorescence is simple, erect, about six inches long with pink bracts and tubular purple flowers. Easy to grow under typical Tillandsia cultural conditions.

This plant has a bit of a history before becoming Tillandsia ‘Kashkin’. Having been collected in Bolivia some years ago by Michael Kashkin, it entered cultivation as simply Species Bolivia. Over the years as it passed from grower to grower, it went by ‘Caulescent jucunda’, ‘Fragrant Flower Bolivia’, and ‘Inca Gold’. Eventually Derek Butcher of Australia did the footwork to determine that the plant is likely a natural hybrid. Of what exactly is not known.

It is a slightly caulescent plant with stiff, narrow, silvery leaves, and a slightly branched inflorescence bearing large, yellow, very fragrant flowers. Easy to grow, it forms nice clusters and likes bright conditions and good air circulation.