Tillandsia usneoides

Plants pendent in long festoons, flowering to 300 cm. Stems elongate. Leaves 4–8, 2-ranked, often twisted or contorted, gray to silver-gray, 1.5–3 × 0.1–0.2 cm, densely grayish-scaly; sheath pale, narrowly elliptic, not inflated, not forming pseudobulb, 0.2–0.4 cm wide; blade filiform, succulent, margins involute to nearly tubular, apex acute. Inflorescences: scape concealed within leaf sheath, appearing scapeless, pendent with shoot, ± 1 mm diam. Floral bracts enveloping flower, erect, green, broad (covering all or most of rachis, rachis not visible at anthesis), ovate, not keeled, 0.4–0.5 cm, thin-leathery, apex acute, surfaces densely grayish-scaly, venation even to slight. Flowers 1, inconspicuous, apparently sessile; sepals free, ovate, not keeled, 0.6–0.7 cm, thin, veined, apex acute, surfaces glabrous; corolla spreading, petals spreading, yellow-green, elliptic, to 1 cm; stamens included; stigma included, simple-erect. Fruits to 2.5 cm.

Phenology: Flowering summer.
Habitat: Epiphytic, occasionally on fences, telephone lines
Elevation: 0–300 m

Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Tex., Va., Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America.

Discussion

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa