A lovely Guatemalan plant to about 12 inches across with long, strappy, soft, velvety, greenish-gray leaves. When in bloom it has a capitate head with lots of blue flowers and the upper leaves and bracts blush an overall peach color. Beautiful and easy to grow.

It should be mentioned that this plant has been controversial since its original ‘discovery’ and introduction by Uwe Feldhoff of Guatemala in 1989. Since then, this species has been cultivated around the world and has been circulated with many different names. At the advice of the late Harry Luther who recognized it was “likely a new species,” but was uninterested in taking it on as a project; we called it cf. capitata. It was grown by others and sold under the name capitata ‘Peach,’ which is a name that we keep for a plant that we (and others) collected in Oaxaca, Mexico and that is quite different.

The plant has also been known as ‘Rio Hondo’, which I still contend is a similar plant, and likely a hybrid with this species that is much larger, etc., but this opinion is not shared by the vast majority. In the ‘old days,’ it was also sold out of Guatemala as sphaerocephala which is itself a valid species from Bolivia and Argentina. Confusion reigned until 2015 when Renate Ehlers finally did the necessary scientific treatment of this beautiful plant and described it as a new species; Tillandsia riohondoensis.