A surprising little plant from Brazil's Atlantic Rainforest. Growing in colonies of a few to many dozen plants, a small clump may resemble Til. recurvata until it flowers. Don't worry about confusing the two, though, as mallemontii is nearly always covered with many large purple, fragrant flowers. Certainly one of the easiest of all Tillandsias to grow. Enjoys good air circulation, medium to bright shaded conditions and frequent watering with fast drying. May be mounted or just suspended from a string for wonderful results.

We first got this plant from a friend under formula, before the name ‘Nugget’ was given and registered. This is a cultivar of crocata x duratii by Barry Genn, both species highly fragrant but the hybrid of the two barely so. That said, it’s beautiful!

Our plant originally was quite small and ‘wimpy’ with few leaves and kind of scrawny looking. Under the care of Veronica our Tillandsia grower, it has become a much larger, robust plant with a nicely branching inflorescence and curling, silvery leaves.

The flower color is buttercup yellow, kind of surprising with the normally dominant duratii in the mix, but all better for it. We have found that if kept well fed and in good light and air circulation, the plant is vigorous and will produce offsets. Different and attractive. 

A silvery caulescent lithophyte from Brazil with long, densely leafed stems that form large pending clusters on the granite rocks. Lightly fragrant purple flowers.

This is an interesting plant that was first found and collected by Tropiflora's, Dennis Cathcart, on a 1993 expedition. The habitat is the geologically incredible ‘Valle de la Luna’ outside of La Paz, Bolivia. An area of highly eroded hard clay and sandstone that resembles, to some, the surface of the moon. There are thousands of pinnacles and steep cliffs. The occasional shelf holds many species of cacti and at least one Tillandsia; Til. prolata. The plants grow in huge clusters of thousands of plants. All are connected and form long, caulescent stems with short, broadly triangular leaves, covered with silvery trichomes. Roots may or may not form. The inflorescence is a simple spike to about eight inches, with dry, brown bracts and bearing large white, fragrant flowers with spreading petals forming an open corolla.

When first discovered, it was unknown in cultivation, and it was assumed that it would likely not survive at sea level. The habitat is just short of 12,000 feet of altitude with a very dry atmosphere. Harry Luther at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens described the plant as Tillandsia xiphioides ssp. Prolata after flowering it in cultivation in 1995. Since then it was elevated to a full species; prolata, by Gouda and Barfuss in 2015.

For best results, grow bright and on the dry side. Otherwise the culture is like that of many other high altitude, dry growing Tillandsias which seem to thrive in almost any conditions. 

This Peruvian plant has silver leaves with a fragrant plum-colored inflorescence.