Tillandsia

Epiphytic Tillandsia cyanea hybrids.

The plant genus Tillandsia, Tillandsia Germanized called, is called with more than 550 species, most species in the family Bromeliaceae ( Bromeliaceae ) or short bromeliads. This purely Neotropical genus is distributed from the southern United States almost to the tip of South America. The species have adapted to a wide variety of habitats.

• 2.1 Green Tillandsias
• 2.2 Grey Tillandsias

• 6.1 subgenera
• 6.2 Kinds (selection)

• 9.1 Literature
• 9.2 Notes and references

Description

Tillandsia species are perennial herbaceous plants. Some of the species grow, like the majority of bromeliads, as a funnel bromeliads, whose stem axis is compressed and the leaves are dense in rosettes together, thereby to cover the lower parts of the leaves, so that a funnel to collect water. In another part of the species, the stem axis are also compressed, but no collection funnel formed. There are also ways in which the stem axis are not compressed, these species form " stems " ( caulescent ) so they have more or less long stems, which are distributed to alternate the leaves. An extreme of this extended stem axis is present in Tillandsia usneoides. The parallel venation leaves are very different in size and shape.

The often brightly colored bracts of the inflorescences are long lasting in many species. Inflorescences may be branched or unbranched. The hermaphrodite flowers are triple double perianth. The three free sepals are symmetrical and pointed.

Are formed capsule fruits. The seeds have a " parachute " similar to the dandelion.

Special features of the habit of some species

• Some Tillandsia species are ant-plants ( Myrmecophyten ). They host nations on specialized ant species.

• Some Tillandsia species form from onions. The leaf base is thickened and is used for storing water. Through the epiphytic life of the plants there is the peculiarity that these bulbs are not in the ground, but up in the air on branches.

Way of life

Tillandsia live mainly epiphytic, ie on other plants ( mostly these are trees or cacti). However, there are species that live lithophytic, ie on rocks (but also roofs and even phone wires ). A few species of terrestrial ( on the floor).

Tillandsias can be divided "gray" species "green" and:

Green Tillandsias

The green species, with its claim to a cool and humid climate usually live longer in the shadow terrestrial or on the lower floors of the forests. When the green species Saugschuppen hardly recognizable, at least in the interior of the leaf hopper but are any.

Grey Tillandsias

In contrast, almost all gray Tillandsienarten live in low-rainfall areas with high humidity. They prefer full sun and are therefore in the upper floors of the woods, found on rocks or (more rarely) on the floor. Many of the gray Tillandsias are epiphytes. Some species are more or less Xeromorph.

As largely rootless plants, they have a very special and highly specialized lifestyle. Her gray appearance due to the fact that their Stems and leaves densely tiny Saugschuppen ( trichomes ) are covered. These are complex designed hairs on the outer skin (epidermis) of the leaves are formed, but soon after die. The dead cells shed these hairs are filled with air, so that light is reflected and the plants appear almost white. The plant is the whiter, the more (or larger) Saugschuppen owns them.

The function of the Saugschuppen similar to the flow of paper. Once they've become saturated with water, which is below the Saugschuppen green assimilation tissue is visible again, " becomes green " the plant. Now the plant can absorb more light. When the sun dries the plants, they will be white again. So the Saugschuppen not only serve to water absorption, but also as evaporation and sun protection. This special survival trick the plants directly absorb without roots in the location, fog droplets, but also rainwater, and so to meet their water needs. The minerals needed purchase these plants from the small amounts that are included in the zoom -blown dust and have been dissolved in the water so recorded. Tillandsia so do not live parasitically.

The roots are used (most Tillandsienarten ) only the attachment and therefore have no root hairs, were absorbed by the minerals and water.

Reproduction and life cycle

Tillandsias can - like other bromeliads also - increase in two ways.

• The first is the "normal " by pollination and seed formation. Since Tillandsias not self-fertile ( self-pollinated ) are, the pollen must come here from another plant of the same species. A Tillandsia requires many years until it blooms. With the fruiting life of the individual Tillandsienpflanze has reached the end. There are still Seeds or Kindel formed, then perish the mother plant.

• The second variant is the so-called propagation Kindel education. Here sprout, often at the root of the parent plant, new plants. This also usually happens after flowering.

Distribution and habitat

The Tillandsia species are distributed from the southern United States almost to the tip of South America. They grow:

• Almost throughout the range of epiphytic on trees and cacti, on rocks, roofs and even phone wires
• In many parts of the distribution area also terrestrial.
• In the hot desert sands of the coast, the Atacama desert (eg, Tillandsia purpurea )
• Well in the hot and humid tropical rain forests,
• The cool, moist cloud forests also,
• Deep dry valleys,
• As well as the high plains at altitudes up to 4000 meters.

Use as an ornamental plant

From epiphytic gray Tillandsias does say that they were relatively undemanding to maintain. However, one should note some basic conditions, which are required for these plants.

At sufficiently light - they need a sunny location, should thus be directly at the window - and regular spraying with decalcified water or rain water, they can also thrive in the room.

The popularity of Tillandsia lies in its bizarre appearance, and their often attractive inflorescences. You see them often in flower shops or even hardware stores with garden department.

A problem is that some offered plant comes from wild stocks, although the home countries prohibit the export. In some easily accessible areas, therefore, some species have already disappeared from the wild. The efforts are, however, meaning that the common species are cultivated in nurseries in the country of origin and are then exported with valid export documents. Also in Germany it should now give some garden centers, dedicated to the Tillandsienanzucht. Buyer should therefore always on the mark " of culture - not from wild stocks " are respected.

System

The genus Tillandsia was erected in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus Species Plantarum, 1, S 286. As lectotype was established in 1920 by Nathaniel L. Tillandsia utriculata Lord Britton and Charles Frederick Millspaugh in Bahama Flora, p 64. The scientific genus name honors the Finnish botanist Elias Tillandz ( 1640-1693 ). Fernald told in Gray's Manual of Botany, 8th edition, 1950, p 391, that Tillandz on a trip he was seasick and the long way back walking far coped therefore. Linnaeus chose the generic name, because he thought that the Tillandsia can not tolerate water. Synonyms for Tillandsia L. are: Renealmia L., Caraguata Adanson, Bonapartea Ruiz & Pav, Acanthospora Spreng, Misandra F.Dietr, Dendropogon Raf, Buonapartea G.Don, Strepsia Nuttall ex. .. . Steud. , Allardtia A.Dietr. , Anoplophytum Beer, Beer Diaphoranthema, Platystachys K.Koch, Phytarrhiza Vis. , Pityrophyllum Beer, Wallisia E.Morren, Viridantha Espejo.

The genus Tillandsia belongs to the tribe Tillandsieae in the subfamily Tillandsioideae within the family of Bromeliaceae. A small proportion of species in the genus was Racinaea MASpencer & LBSm. outsourced.

Subgenera

• Subgenus Allardtia
• Subgenus Anoplophytum
• Subgenus Diaphoranthema
• Subgenus Phytarrhiza
• Subgenus Pseudalcantarea
• Subgenus Tillandsia

Types (selection)

A complete list of species of the genus Tillandsia, please refer to classification of Tillandsia.

Here a selection of Tillandsia species that are frequently offered commercially: T. aeranthos, T. araujei, T. baileyi, T. balbisiana, T. bulbosa, T. caput- medusae, T. circinnata, T. cyanea, T. dyeriana, T. fasciculata, T. festucoides, T. flabellata, T. flexuosa, T. ionantha, T. juncea, T. lindenii, T. meridionalis, T. pruinosa, T. recurvata, T. setacea, T. streptophylla, T. stricta, T. tectorum, T. tenuifolia, T. usneoides, T. utriculata, T. xeropgraphica.

Curious thing

Very stimulating Tillandsienarten worked in the past on the science that anxious to find out how the plant ever comes to their nutrients. The French researcher Kervran thought he had found that they could only be created by the biological element transformations, and he believed they had been detected. This thesis, however, is no longer tenable given the current state of science.

More images

Grey Tillandsia Tillandsia funckiana: Not very often it occurs in bromeliad species to form a trunk, so caulescent are also relatively rare in Bromilien species is such a bright red flower color. It seems as if in this type no inflorescence present, but it is only much shortened and one or rarely two flowered.

Tillandsia Tillandsia fasciculata Grey.

Green Tillandsia Tillandsia flabellata in the greenhouse.

Swell

• Harry E. Luther: An Alphabetical List of Bromeliad Binomials, 2008 (PDF, 321 kB) in The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota, Florida, USA. Published by The Bromeliad Society International. (PDF file, 314 kB)
• Derek Butcher & Eric Gouda: The New Bromeliad Taxon List. A Constantly updated list of current Bromeliad names and synonyms.
• German Bromeliad Society eV ( DBG )