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Tillandsia variabilis

(Leatherleaf 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:

Leatherleaf Airplant, Soft-Leaved Wild Pine

Common Names in Spanish:

Tillandsia Cambiante

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 variabilis

Plants usually single, rarely clustering , flowering to 40 cm. Stems short. Leaves 15--20, many-ranked, spreading , gray-green or flushed rose, 12--30 ´ 1--2 cm, finely appressed-scaly; sheath pale to nearly chestnut brown, ovate , flat, not forming pseudobulb , 2--4 cm wide; blade narrowly triangular, tapering evenly from base to apex, nearly plane to channeled , soft, brittle, margins involute , apex attentuate. Inflorescences: scape conspicuous , erect or ascending , 3--10 cm, 2--5 mm diam.; bracts densely imbricate, erect, blade often hanging , like leaves but gradually smaller; sheath of bracts narrowing abruptly into blade; spikes erect or ascending, never palmate, linear , compressed , 5--20 ´ 0.8--1.2 cm, apex acute; simple or laxly 2--3 lateral branches. Floral bracts laxly imbricate, erect, green, red, or purple, broad (covering all or most of rachis, rachis not visible at anthesis ), elliptic , keeled toward apex, 1.8--2 ´ 0.6--0.9 cm, leathery, base visible in fruit, apex acute, surfaces glabrous . Flowers 5--30, conspicuous; sepals with adaxial pair connate , oblong , keeled, 1.5--1.8 cm, thin-leathery, slightly veined, apex obtuse , surfaces glabrous; corolla tubular , petals erect, lavender-blue, ligulate , to 3 cm; stamens exserted; stigma exserted, conduplicate-spiral. Fruits to 3 cm. [source]

Habit: Forb/herb

Flowers: Bloom Period: February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October.

Habitat

Epiphytic in moist, shaded habitats ; 0--30 m [3].

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

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Growth

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

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

T. valenzuelana A. Richard • Tillandsia houzeavii Chapman • Tillandsia sublaxa Baker • Tillandsia valenzuelana A. Rich.

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 February 28, 2008:

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 variabilis". in Flora of North America Vol. 22. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  4. Mean = 839.790 meters (2,755.217 feet), Standard Deviation = 1,046.760 based on 56 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/15/2012