This is the proliferating form of secunda from the area north of Quito, Ecuador. A large growing plant with silvery-green leaves in an upright rosette, which when in bloom produces its offsets on its inflorescence. The inflorescence is tall and branched, up to 3 feet or so, and usually bright red in color, and the adventitious offsets are produced at almost every internode. In nature it grows on the ground on rocky slopes in full sun. Popular with collectors, it is usually grown potted to gain size and vigor.

*VIPP plants are NOT in bloom

An epiphyte or lithophyte native to Mexico and Central America where it grows mostly in pine forests above 2,000 feet. Tillandsia seleriana takes the pseudobulb shape to the extreme. A myrmecophyte or ant plant in nature, often or usually having ant colonies living in the hollow spaces in the pseudobulb. (Not in cultivation of course!) Growing to about a thick as a tennis ball or slightly larger, and up to 10 inches tall. The leaves are tightly closed at the top, giving it the general shape of a turnip! In nature this plant is almost always growing sideways or upside down and in cultivation this method is best so as to keep excess water out of the base. Grow in a breezy place.

An all-time favorite from Brazil is about 6 inches across in a leafy rosette with stiff gray-green leaves. It produces a stunning blue-flowered, plume-shaped pink inflorescence in the summer. In nature this plant can be found growing on the restinga sands of beach dunes and in trees in the foothills of the Atlantic Range in Brazil.

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.

A natural hybrid from Tropiflora of Tillandsia stricta x aeranthos.