A tissue culture hybrid of Aechmea chantinii x fasciata. The plant grows to 2 and 1/2 feet in a large green rosette shape with many spiny leaves lightly scurfed. The rosy pinkish-red bloom is long-lasting and stunning. 

*VIPP plants are Offsets

A Chester Skotak hybrid, this plant forms a 30 inch rosette of coppery leaves with moderately spiny margins. The inflorescence is about 12 inches tall, forming a sort of cone-shape with bold red, white-tipped bracts more reminiscent of the nidularioides parent and is very long-lasting in color. A good plant for landscape use in warm climates.

*VIPP plants are Offsets

A most unusual looking bromeliad, native to most of tropical South America where it grows as an epiphyte. A clustering plant about 30 inches tall (can reach 48 inches!) with whip-like leaves and a bulbous base about an inch in diameter. The habit is erect and slightly arching, forming a tassel-like cluster. The leaf color is reddish, growing deeper red in bright light.

The inflorescence is a short panicle of berries that forms low in the foliage and hangs out to the side. A clump in bloom is an attractive sight. An oddity for sure, but has great appeal as a pot or basket plant and belongs in every bromeliad collection.

A Jim Irvin hybrid introduced in 1991 is the prodigy of Cryptanthus ‘Cloudcover’ crossed with Cryptanthus ‘Ocean Mist.’  Owing to its ancestry, this plant has the crisped edges and long graceful leaves fixed in a symmetrical rosette as Cryptanthus zonatus.  The one-inch wide dark brown pink leaves are marked with a cross banding of an undulating flame-stitch pattern of snow-white trichomes.  As the plant matures, it loses its scurfing, darkening to a brown-red as its pink offsets emerge dusted with snow-white trichomes.  The beautiful hybrid matures out to a 6-inch height with a 14-inch diameter.

*VIPP plants are Offsets

An Arla Rutledge hybrid of unknown parentage, but most likely with Cryptanthus beuckeri in its lineage.  Very dark red and green mottling covered in fine scurf giving a dull matte finish over the entire leaf and denser near the base on very wide leaves.  Attaining 12″ in diameter with a very full round form.

*VIPP plants are Offsets

This cultivar of Cryptanthus acaulis var. ruber is a small full round plant with 30+ leaves that attains a size of 8-inches in diameter.  The creamy coffee colored leaves, in the proper light blushes pink in the center, have a faint center ridge visible and are sparsely scaled near the leaf base.  The underside is fused in fine lineated stripes of scurf.

*VIPP plants are Offsets

A Carole Richtmyer hybrid, a cultivar of 'Earth Angel' x bromelioides 'Red form,' having 18+ lanceolate leaves maturing to a full round form 12-inches in diameter.  The dark and lime green mottled leaves are covered in a very light lineated scurf as the red leaf base clasp the stem.  In stronger light, the leaves will take on colors of orange and red, besides the greens.  Light well defined lines of trichomes cover the undersides of the leaves.

*VIPP plants are Offsets

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.

One of the many shell-leaved species in the genus, Dischidia platyphylla is endemic to the Philippines where it grows strictly as an epiphyte. Notable for the flat, oppositely arranged leaves that create small concave spaces where arboreal ants of the genus Crematogaster (not native to the USA) take up residence. The leaves of this species can get quite large if provided with plenty of height to climb and can reach sizes up to four inches in diameter. As with many shell-leaved Dischidia species, they are quite difficult to ID when sterile and a few are even difficult to ID with flowers present. Dischidia platyphylla happens to be one of the few that even when in flower, is often confused with the very closely related, D. imbricata. The easiest way to tell them apart is that the flowers of D. platyphylla have corolla lobes lined in purple whereas D. imbricata does not. The shell-leaved species do best grown on a support which provides them a surface to climb but they can be grown in a pot if the soil mix drains well. Pot grown specimens tend to have curled up leaves and don't display as nicely as a support grown specimen however.

A hybrid that originated in Thailand. Recurving silver green leaves with spines. The rosette has narrow recurving leaves. Mature size is 8to 10 inches across. Grows best in strong bright light but not all day full sun.