Tillandsia leiboldiana is native to Central America, especially from southern Mexico to Costa Rica. It grows epiphytic at altitudes between 0 and 1300 meters above sea level.
Tillandsia leiboldiana, also called as Tillandsia phyllostachya, Tillandsia xyphophylla, Tillandsia aschersoniana, Tillandsia rhodochlamys, Tillandsia sparsiflora, Tillandsia coccinea, Tillandsia lilacina, Vriesea siebertiana, Tillandsia leiboldiana var. guttata, is a species of the genus Tillandsia. This species was described by Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal in 1845.
IDENTIFY TILLANDSIA LEIBOLDIANA AIR PLANT
Tillandsia leiboldiana is native to Central America, especially from southern Mexico to Costa Rica. It grows epiphytic at altitudes between 0 and 1300 meters above sea level.
It is a epiphyte acaule of medium sized (35 to 50 cm) with fine, very soft, dark green at the lamina and light yellowish green at the sheath leaves that form a rosette.
This air plant bloom from the large (can exceed 30 cm), bipinnate (sometimes tripinnate) inflorescence with small ears arranged in a helix. The bracts of the flowering stem are similar to the leaves and red at the top of the inflorescence. The primary bracts are soft, red, with green at their tips. The floral bracts are leathery, imbricate and generally purple-green in color, especially at the tips of the ears. The non-fragrant flowers are sessile, non-tubular, violet, 3 cm long, bloom from the base of the ears towards their end. The stamens and pistil are included. The flowers last only a few hours (12 at most), and turn brown quickly once faded.
TILLANDSIA LEIBOLDIANA 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 leiboldiana requires a fairly high brightness. Like all species with little scales, it can not stand the direct sun in summer. Place the plant very close to a window inside. If you decide to grow it outdoors, do it in the shade.
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 10 ° C, especially if it is wet.
Humidity:
This air plant need the high level of humidity. Good aeration is required, the plant must dry quickly (in less than an hour).
Substrate, growing media and repotting:
Tillandsia leiboldiana can be grow suspended or grow as epiphyte on a solid substrate that does not retain water. It is often sold in pots but it is possible to deposit it to cultivate epiphyte on a piece of wood for example.
Watering:
If you grow the plant as epiphyte, water them every day, summer like winter. The arrangement of the leaves in a tight rosette indicates that it must be watered in the heart, even if it is grown in a pot (do not let water stagnate in the heart at the beginning of flowering, so as not to drown the inflorescence when it does not emerge from the rosette yet). Change the water of the heart once every 2 or 3 days. Although epiphyte, this species is often sold in pot. It is not useless in this case to slightly wet the root ball but do not do it every day, you could rot the base of the plant (just hold the clod slightly wet).
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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