A maturing clump from Guatemala. In the first photo, the right-hand plant is near flowering, upper left is just starting to color up, and the mother plant that flowered the year before is at bottom left. A few weeks later, in the next photo, the first plant commences flowering.
This is the batch sold in our 2002 catalog as Tillandsia velutina "Abdita," plants we imported from an Australian wholesaler. We still have some of this batch left, but unless asked for them we now supply Tillandsia velutina plants imported direct from Guatemala.
The plant has green, velvety leaves which turn red when the plant starts coming into flower. It occurs naturally in moist pine forests in Chiapas, southern Mexico, and Guatemala. It is very similar to Tillandsia brachycaulos in flower, but it grows at higher altitudes, 1,200 to 2,200 meters above sea level. Tillandsia brachycaulos grows between sea level and 1,200 (occasionally up to 1,700) meters in dry areas.
