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.

A species widespread in southern South America, is a common plant and one of the most fragrant and easy to cultivate species. Grows in tangled clusters with silvery, eight to twelve-inch leaves. The inflorescence has a cluster of short branches and bears many purple, highly fragrant flowers. Grow mounted in a breezy spot.

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.

A natural hybrid from Tropiflora of Tillandsia stricta x aeranthos.

A possible natural hybrid though I am not sure if the two species overlap. Anyway it occurred in a collection of plants imported years ago. A 6 inch, stiff, gray-leaved rosette with pale, papery bracts and yellowish-white flowers that fade to light blue.

This beautiful species is native to only a couple of isolated canyons in central Honduras. A large upright grower to over 30 inches, with stiff, reddish leaves and an inflorescence of long pink, upright, terete branches.

In nature it lives at the base of cliffs, supporting itself against rocks and other plants. In cultivation it can be kept bare root, mounted or may be potted in a well drained media.

A robust form of this caulescent species from Brazil grows to about 8 inches long but can exceed 12 inches. Stiff, reddish leaves make this a handsome species and it easily forms large clusters. The inflorescence has pink bracts and white flowers. Both an epiphyte and lithophyte in habitat, it does well mounted or simply suspended from a string or wire.

A form of the widely variable species from Brazil that has reddish-coppery leaves in a very leafy, somewhat caulescent rosette. The plants form clusters with many offsets. The inflorescence has reddish bracts and white flowers with an open corolla.

A handsome, slender growing, clump forming species from Rio Grande do Sul state in southern Brazil. Described by Prof. Dr. Werner Rauh in 1984. A lithophyte, growing with several species of cacti, orchids and other bromeliad species. The foliage is silvery-lepidote, slender, in a loose upright rosette with an inflorescence about a long as the leaves, un-branched, with light red bracts and open white flowers.

Individual plants reach about 8 inches tall.