Tillandsia intermedia is endemic to western Mexico, reported from Guerrero, Sinaloa, and Jalisco. It is found on trees and bushes, including mangroves at an altitude ranging from 0 to 1000 meters above sea level. This species is often confused with Tillandsia caput-medusae and Tillandsia paucifolia.
Tillandsia intermedia, also called as Tillandsia paucifolia subsp. schubertii, is a species of the genus Tillandsia. This species was described by Carl Christian Mez in 1903.
IDENTIFY TILLANDSIA INTERMEDIA AIR PLANT
Tillandsia intermedia is endemic to western Mexico, reported from Guerrero, Sinaloa, and Jalisco. It is found on trees and bushes, including mangroves at an altitude ranging from 0 to 1000 meters above sea level. This species is often confused with Tillandsia caput-medusae and Tillandsia paucifolia.
It is a medium sized (may exceed 25 cm) caulescent, but often apparently elongated because of proliferation of the inflorescence cause it often hanging from trees by the coiled leaves, or the inflorescence proliferating repeatedly as a new rosette, forming a chain of plants. It has 5-8, thick leaves covered throughout with coarse pale scales. The sheaths are large, broadly ovate, inflated and forming a narrowly ovoid or ellipsoid pseudobulb 5-15 cm long.
This air plant bloom from the simple or composed inflorescence of some pointed spikes carrying up to ten flowers. The bracts of the flowering stem resemble leaves and are very scaly. The primary bracts are scaly and pinkish. The floral bracts are green or pink, very scaly and veined. The flowers are tubular, 3 cm long, almost perpendicular to the axis, purple or mauve. The stamens and the pistil are exserts.
TILLANDSIA INTERMEDIA 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 intermedia requires a good light, but without full sun (especially in the afternoon summer). You can also cultivate them in partial shade. Place the plant very close to a window indoors in the winter and preferably outside the summer in a bright situation.
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 6 ° C, especially if it is wet.
Humidity:
This air plant need the moderate level of humidity. This species can withstand short periods of drought. Good aeration is required, the plant must dry quickly (in less than an hour).
Substrate, growing media and repotting:
Tillandsia intermedia can be grow suspended or mounted on a solid substrate that does not retain water. You can glue the plant directly to the surface with a strong adhesive, or you can wire the plant to the base. 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.
Watering:
Two or three times a week in summer, one or two 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 will prefer to be grown in an inclined position, to limit the problems of stagnant water at the base of the leaves. If you prefer to cultivate the plant head up, turn it over for a few seconds to drain the excess water after each watering.
Fertilizer:
This air plant can be fertilized with the moderate doses. 1 to 2 times a month in the summer and 1 time a month in the winter.
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