Guzmania caricifolia
Guzmania caricifolia is a Colombian tank bromeliad with narrow, sedge-like leaves (the epithet means 'Carex-leaved'), first described by André from his 1876 crossing of the Colombian Andes and moved to Guzmania by L.B. Smith in 1934. Wild records sit mostly on the wet Pacific slope of the Western Cordillera at around 1,000 to 2,000 m, in mild, very humid premontane and cloud forest. Little is published beyond the description, so home conditions here come from the measured climate and what is typical of montane Guzmania.
Where it grows wild
Almost certainly an epiphyte of wet premontane and lower montane forest, sitting on mossy trunks and branches in the mid-storey where mist and rain keep the tank full. Records cluster in Nariño near Ricaurte, in Valle del Cauca on the Cali to Buenaventura slope, and in Risaralda and Chocó.
Recorded from 0 to 2,363 m, median 1,400 m. The lowest points and a single 206 m record from Meta look out of place for the rest of the range; treat 1,000 to 2,000 m as the core.
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More Guzmania
Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app.