Tillandsia secunda is native to Ecuador. It grows terrestrial and on rocks and cliffs near Ona (Province Cuenca) at elevations of 2000 to 3500 meters above sea level.
Tillandsia secunda, also called as Pitcairnia secunda, is a species of the genus Tillandsia. This species was described by Carl Sigismund Kunth in 1816.
IDENTIFY TILLANDSIA SECUNDA AIR PLANT
Tillandsia secunda is native to Ecuador. It grows terrestrial and on rocks and cliffs near Ona (Province Cuenca) at elevations of 2000 to 3500 meters above sea level.
It is a stemless, large sized terrestrial air plant, which reaching 2-3 meters high, with many leaves in a dense regular rosette, 50 cm long, covered with appressed cinereous brown-centered scales. The leaves are green, pinkish or brownish depending on the exposure.
This air plant blooms from the 1.5-2.5 m long, laxly pyramidal, to 1.5m wide, laxly tri to quadripinnate inflorescence. The primary bracts are shorter than the sterile bracteate bases of the branches, ovate, the lower acuminate, the upper apiculate. The floral bracts becoming secund with the flowers but not so strongly, broadly elliptic, obtuse, 30-35 mm long, ecarinate, inflated, subchartaceous, nerved, glabrous, red-violet. The flowers are beautiful, almost sessile and tubular, leathery, 4-5 cm long, mauve to blackish purple (rarely reddish), oriented on the same side. Sepals are ecarinate, acuminate, weakly nerved, green at base, violet at top. Petals are violet then whitish at base, with reflexed tip. Stamens and Stigma widely exceed.
TILLANDSIA SECUNDA AIR PLANT CARE AND CULTURE
Cultural information should only be used as a guide, and should be to be adapted to suit you. Your physical location; where you grow your plants, how much time you have to devote to their care, and many other factors, will need to be taken into account. Only then can you decide on the cultural methods that best suit you and your plants.
Light:
Tillandsia secunda can be grown in the shade or in a sunny situation (partial shade is better). Avoid all the sun in the afternoon in summer if the plant is young or has not been used.
Temperature:
The required temperature ranging from 10 to 32°C. Get it early enough in the fall if you grow it outside, so that it does not face night temperatures below 4 or 5 ° C, especially if it is wet. The plants can faced temperatures close to 0 ° C (sheltered and dry) for a few hours without damage.
Humidity:
This species need the high level of humidity .Good aeration is required, the plant must dry quickly (in less than an hour). This impressive and robust species is easily grown if there is enough moisture.
Substrate, growing media and repotting:
Tillandsia secunda can be grown in pot or be mounted on a solid substrate that does not retain water. The pot culture gives very good results. Place the plant very close to a window indoors in winter and preferably out in mid-shade in the summer. Don't cover the base of the plant with moss or it may rot. It can be grown on almost any imaginable decorative mount, including shells, rocks, slate, driftwood, etc. Group them in decorative clumps for maximum effect.
Watering:
This plant need watered everyday in summer, 2-3 times a week in winter according to the luminosity and the ambient humidity. Obviously when it rains and if you grow it outside, it counts as a watering. It is advisable to leave water in the rosette (except at the beginning of flowering, so as not to drown the inflorescence when it does not emerge from the rosette), by changing it regularly (every 3 days).
Fertilizer:
This air plant is quite greedy in fertilizer. 3 times a month in the summer and 1 time a month in the winter is recommended.
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