Species library › Guzmania › Guzmania desautelsii
Other Partly documented

Guzmania desautelsii

A Central American guzmania described by Read and L.B. Smith in 1983, with rosettes of greyish-purple to green leaves 30-70 cm long and a compact, cone-like head of orange to scarlet bracts and white flowers. The GBIF records place it in wet lowland to premontane forest from Nicaragua through Costa Rica into Panama, mostly around 850 m. Grow it warm, humid and in bright shade, like other rainforest guzmanias.

Guzmania desautelsii
Photo: Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day Warm-growingTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Ordinary room humidityBand in Plantistry
Light Dappled lightDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
No rest periodGrows on trees (epiphyte)

Where it grows wild

The sources consulted do not describe its habitat. The recorded sites are mostly in wet forest on the Caribbean slope and central mountain ranges of Costa Rica and Panama, including the Guanacaste and Tilarán cordilleras, the San Carlos lowlands and central Panama. Most guzmanias of these forests grow as epiphytes on trunks and branches in bright shade, sometimes on the ground or on rocks. Its exact growth habit is not confirmed.

GBIF records run from 40 to 1,700 m, with a median of 850 m (152 records with elevation). This spans hot lowland forest to cooler premontane cloud forest.

Costa RicaNicaraguaPanamá

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY 2.0 licence, unmodified.