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Tillandsia paucifolia

(Potbelly Airplant)

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in English:

Potbelly Airplant, Twisted Wild-Pine

Common Names in Spanish:

Tillandsia Pocas Hojas

Description

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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

Species Tillandsia paucifolia

Plants single or clustering , flowering to 15 cm. Stems short. Leaves 5--10, many-ranked, recurved to twisted, silvery gray, to 12 ´ 0.3--0.6 cm, grayish-scaly; sheath nearly chestnut brown within, ovate , conspicuously inflated , forming small pseudobulb , 1.5--3.5 cm wide; blade narrowly triangular, semisucculent, margins involute , apex obtuse to nearly acute. Inflorescences: scape short and conspicous, erect or ascending , 1--6 cm, 2--3 mm diam.; bracts densely imbricate, erect to spreading , like leaves but gradually smaller; sheath of bracts narrowing gradually into blade; single spikes, or with 2--4 lateral spikes, usually ascending, pinnate, linear to narrowly elliptic , compressed , 2--7 ´ 0.6--1 cm, apex acute to obtuse. Floral bracts imbricate, erect, pale pink, broad (covering all or most of rachis, rachis not visible at anthesis ), elliptic, not keeled , 2--3 cm, thin-leathery, base visible at anthesis, apex broadly acute to obtuse, surfaces densely grayish-scaly. Flowers 2--15, conspicuous ; sepals with adaxial pair short connate , lanceolate, keeled, to 2 cm, thin-leathery to papery , veined, apex acute, surfaces sparsely scaly ; corolla tubular ; petals erect, lavender-blue, ligulate , to 4 cm; stamens exserted; stigma exserted, conduplicate-spiral. Fruits to 4 cm. [source]

The leaf blade of Tillandsia paucifolia is often shorter than the leaf sheath. [source]

Habit: Forb/herb

Flowers: Bloom Period: February, March, April, May, June, July. • Flower Color: blue-violet

Size/Age/Growth

Size: under 6" tall.

Habitat

Epiphytic in bright exposed habitats ; 0--30 m [3].

Typically found in the intertidal zone at the water's edge at a mean distance from sea level of 96 meters (314 feet).[4]

Biome: Coastal.

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Growth

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Light Shade.

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

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

Tillandsia circinnata auct. non Schlecht.

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 21-Jun-2005

Similar Species

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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

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 30, 2007:

Identifiers

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. "Tillandsia paucifolia". in Flora of North America Vol. 22. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  4. Standard Deviation = 468.490 based on 122 observations. Terrestrial altitude and ocean depth information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/15/2012