Tillandsia polystachya

• Interesting Facts
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Interesting Facts

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]

Taxonomy

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

• Search for Pictures: images.google.com
• Search for Scholarly Articles: Google Scholar
• Search using Scientific Name and Vernacular Names: All the Web | AltaVista Canada | AltaVista | Excite | Google | HotBot | Lycos
• Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books

Further Reading

• A contribution to the flora of Honduras, by T. G. Yuncker. 17 1938 Chicago, 1938. url p. 321.
• Britton, N. L. (ed.). North American flora. [New York]New York Botanical Garden. url p. 128, p. 135.
• Bulletin of the New York Botanical Garden. 3 1903-1905 Lancaster, Pa.: Published for the Garden by the New Era Printing Co., url p. 441.
• Contribution [I]-III to the coastal and plain flora of Yucatan, by Charles Frederick Millspaugh. 1 1895 Chicago, 1895-1898. url p. 12.
• Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 52 2005 Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1890- url p. 2, p. 288, p. 297, p. 3, p. 359.
• Contributions from the University of Michigan Herbarium. 8 1942 Ann Arbor: University Herbarium, University of Michigan, 1939- url p. 18.
• Flora of Bermuda... by Nathaniel Lord Britton... New York, Scribner, 1918. url p. 66.
• Flora of Costa Rica. .. by Paul C. Standley. .. 18 1937 Chicago, 1937. url p. 161.
• Flora of Yucatan, by Paul C. Standley. 3 1930 Chicago, Field Museum of Natural History, 1930. url p. 222.
• 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. 245, p. 246.
• Hand-list of tender momocotyledons, excluding Orchideae, cultivated in the Royal Gardens, Kew. London, Printed for H. M. S. O., by Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1897. url p. 73.
• Hand-list of tender monocotyledons, excluding Orchideae, cultivated in the Royal Gardens, Kew. 1897. LondonPrinted for H.M. Stationery Off. by Eyre and Spottiswoode1897 url p. 73.
• Handbook of the Bromeliaceae. London, G. Bell & Sons, 1889. url p. 179, p. 187, p. 54.
• Journal of the New York Botanical Garden. 33 1932 Lancaster, Pa.: Published for the Garden by the New Era Printing Co., 1900- url p. 119.
• List of intercepted plant pests / United States Department of Agriculture, Plant Quarantine and Control Administration. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O.], 1932- url p. 157, p. 211, p. 220, p. 557, p. 81.
• Phytologia memoirs. Plainfield, N.J.: H.N. Moldenke and A.L. Moldenke, 1980- url p. 89.
• Plantae Utowanae. Plants collected in Bermuda, Porto Rico, St. Thomas, Culebras, Santo Domingo, Jamaica, Cuba, The Caymans, Cozumel, Yucatan and the Alacran shoals. Dec. 1898-Mar. 1899. The Antillean cruise of the yach 2 1900 Chicago, 1900. url p. 30.
• Publication. Field Columbian Museum. 2 1900 Chicago.: Field Columbian Museum, 1895-1909. url p. 30.
• Reise durch einige der mittlern und su?dlichen Vereinigten Nordamerikanischen Staaten, nach Ost-Florida und den Bahama Inseln unternommen in den jahren 1783 und 1784, von Johann David Scho?pf. .. Cincinnati, J.U. & C.G. Lloyd, 1911. url p. 38.
• 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 American journal of science and arts. New-Haven: S. Converse, url p. 292.
• The Bahama flora, by Nathaniel Lord Britton and Charles Frederick Millspaugh. New York, The authors, 1920. url p. 64, p. 64.
• 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.
• Travels in the Confederation, 1783-1784. From the German. Translated and edited by Alfred J. Morrison. Philadelphia, W.J. Campbell, 1911. url p. 284, p. 311.
• 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.

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2789077
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 4032971

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]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.