Tillandsia festucoides

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Biology
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Click on the language to view common names.

Description

Family Bromeliaceae

Herbs or rarely shrubs , epiphytic, lithophytic, or terrestrial . Leaves spirally arranged , usually rosulate, sessile, simple , veins parallel, base dilated , sheathing , margin often spinose serrate or sometimes entire. Inflorescence terminal or lateral , scapose or sessile, a panicle, raceme , spike, or head , sometimes reduced to solitary, pseudolateral flowers; bracts usually brightly colored and conspicuous . Flowers bisexual or sometimes functionally unisexual , 3-merous. Sepals and petals each 3, distinct , free or basally connate ; petals often brightly colored, basal margin with a pair of scalelike appendages . Stamens 6, in 2 whorls of 3; filaments free, connate, or collectively or individually adnate to petals; anthers 2-celled, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Gynoecium of 3 carpels united to form a compound , 3-loculed, superior or very often partly or wholly inferior ovary ; ovules few to usually ± numerous in each locule; placentation axile . Style terminal and often 3-parted; stigmas papillose . Fruit a berry or less often a septicidal capsule, or seldom compound and fleshy . Seeds usually winged or plumose ; endosperm mealy ; embryo small to fairly large.

About 50 genera and 2000--2600 species: mainly tropical America, except for Pitcairnia feliciana (A. Chevalier) Harms & Mildbraed in tropical W Africa; one species (introduced ) in China.[1]

Genus Tillandsia

Herbs, usually epiphytic, stemless to long caulescent . Leaves mostly many-ranked, rosulate, or occasionally 2-ranked and / or laxly arranged; blade linear to triangular or ligulate , margins entire, trichomes usually conspicuous . Inflorescences central, 1--many-flowered, 2-ranked; floral bracts mostly broad, conspicuous, rachis covered or exposed at anthesis . Flowers bisexual ; sepals distinct or adaxial pair connate , usually symmetric ; petals distinct; stamens included or exserted, filaments free ; ovary superior. Capsules cylindric , dehiscent . Seeds with basal, white, plumose appendage .

Species ca. 550 (13 species and 2 described natural hybrids in the flora ) : widespread in the Neotropics.[2]

Physical Description

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 4,936 meters (0 to 16,194 feet).[3]

Biology

Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Growth

Culture: Space 15-18" apart.

Soil: Minimum pH: 6.1 • Maximum pH: 7.8

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full sun to partial shade.

Moisture: Drought Tolerance: High

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 9b, 10a, 10b, 11. (map)

Taxonomy

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 21-Jun-2005

Similar Species

Members of the genus Tillandsia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 59 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

T. aeranthos (Air Plant) · T. albertiana x stricta (Air Plant) · T. araujei (Air Plant) · T. ariza-juliae (Dominican Airplant) · T. baileyi (Reflexed Airplant) · T. balbisiana (Balbis Air Plant) · T. bartramii (Bartram's Airplant) · T. bergeri (Air Plant) · T. brachycaulos (Airplant) · T. brachycaulos x caput-medusae (Medusa´s Head) · T. brachycaulos x schiedeana (Giant Air Plant) · T. bulbosa (Air Plant) · T. bulbosa 'Giant Belize Form' (Air Plant) · T. cacticola (Tillandsia) · T. cyanea 'Josée' (Pink Quill 'jos) · T. cyanea 'Pink Quill' (Air Plant) · T. dyeriana (Tillandsia) · T. fasciculata (Cardinal Air Plant) · T. fasciculata Sw. var. clavispica Mez (Giant Airplant) · T. fasciculata var. clavispica (Giant Airplant) · T. fasciculata var. densispica (Giant Airplant) · T. fasciculata var. fasciculata (Giant Airplant) · T. fasciculata var. venosispica (Giant Airplant) · T. festucoides (Fescue Airplant) · T. flexuosa (Banded Wild-Pine) · T. floridana (Florida Airplant) · T. fuchsii var. gracilis (Air Plant) · T. funebris (Air Plant) · T. funkiana (Air Plant) · T. insularis (Spanish Moss) · T. ionantha (Blushing Bride) · T. ionantha 'Druid' (Air Plant) · T. ionantha 'Peach' (Air Plant) · T. leonamiana (Air Plant) · T. lindenii (Linden's Airplant) · T. lineatispica (Pinon) · T. lingulata (Droophead Tufted Airplant) · T. neglecta (Air Plant) · T. nidus 'T. Ionantha X T. Fascicula' (Air Plant) · T. nitida (Caribbean Strap Airplant) · T. paucifolia (Potbelly Airplant) · T. plumosa (Air Plant) · T. pruinosa (Fuzzy Wuzzy Air Plant) · T. recurvata (Ball Moss) · T. ringens (Pirigallo) · T. sessiliflora (Sessileleaf Strap Airplant) · T. setacea (Needle-Leaf Airplant) · T. smalliana (Small's Airplant) · T. stricta (Air Plant) · T. stricta 'Hard Leaf' (Tillandsia) · T. tenuifolia (Air Plant) · T. tricholepis (Air Moss) · T. tricholepsis (Air Plant) · T. usneoides (Spanish Moss) · T. utriculata (Giant Air Plant) · T. variabilis (Leatherleaf Airplant) · T. x (Florida Airplant) · T. xerographica (Tillandsia) · T. x rectifolia (Tillandsia)

More Info

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Further Reading

• A contribution to the flora of Honduras, by T. G. Yuncker. 17 1938 Chicago, 1938. url p. 319.
• Contributions from the University of Michigan Herbarium. 8 1942 Ann Arbor: University Herbarium, University of Michigan, 1939- url p. 18.
• Flora of Costa Rica. .. by Paul C. Standley. .. 18 1937 Chicago, 1937. url p. 159.
• Flora of Guatemala / by Paul C. Standley and Julian A. Steyermark. 24 1958 Chicago: Chicago Museum of Natural History, 1958. url fig. 103, page 447, p. ix.
• Flora of the Aguan valley and the coastal regions near La Ceiba, Honduras, by T. G. Yuncker. 9 1940 [Chicago]1940. url p. 266.
• Flora of the Lancetilla Valley, Honduras, by Paul C. Standley. 10 1931 Chicago, Field Museum of Natural History, 1931. url p. 128.
• Flora of the southeastern United States; being descriptions of the seed-plants, ferns and fern-allies growing naturally in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and in Oklahom by John Kunkel Small. New York, The author, 1913. url p. 245, p. 246.
• Phytologia memoirs. Plainfield, N.J.: H.N. Moldenke and A.L. Moldenke, 1980- url p. 88.
• Small, J. K. Flora of the southeastern United States;being descriptions of the seed-plants, ferns and fern-allies growing naturally in North Carolina, South Carolin, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and the Indian territory and in Oklahoma and Texas east of the one-hundredth meridian /by John Kunkel Small. .. 1903 New York: The author, 1903. url p. 245, p. 246.
• The forests and flora of British Honduras / by Paul C. Standley and Samuel J. Record; in cooperation with the Conservator of Forests and the Agricultural Officer of the Colony. 12 1936 Chicago: [Field Museum of Natural History], 1936. url p. 91.
• Wrightia. 2 1959-1963 Richardson, Tex. [etc.]University of Texas at Dallas. url p. 115.
• Ma Weiliang. 1997. Bromeliaceae. In: Wu Kuo-fang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 13(3): 64--68.
• Gardner, C. S. 1982. Systematic Study of Tillandsia Subgenus Tillandsia. Ph.D. dissertation. Texas A&M University.
• Gardner, C. S. 1984. New species and nomenclatural changes in Mexican Tillandsia---I. Selbyana 7: 361--379.
• Luther, H. E. 1985. Notes on hybrid tillandsias in Florida. Phytologia 57: 175--176.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 9, 2012.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 22, 2007:

• Comisión nacional para el conocimiento y uso de la biodiversidad, Herbario del Instituto de Ecología, A.C., México
• Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad
• , Biodiversidad de Costa Rica
• Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden
• UNIBIO, IBUNAM, MEXU/Plantas Vasculares

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2662159
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: Kew-268999
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13754416
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 42375
• MoBot NameID: 4300428
• U.S.D.A. Plant Symbol: TIFE
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 65022

Footnotes

1. Wei-liang Ma & Bruce Bartholomew "Bromeliaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 18. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. Harry E. Luther,Gregory K. Brown "Tillandsia". in Flora of North America Vol. 22. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
3. Mean = 187.010 meters (613.550 feet), Standard Deviation = 292.890 based on 14,750 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.