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Species library › Guzmania › Guzmania lingulata
Other Well documented

Guzmania lingulata

Scarlet star

The scarlet star is a tank-forming epiphytic bromeliad from wet tropical forests between southern Mexico, the Caribbean and Bolivia. It is the wild parent of most supermarket Guzmanias: a rosette of soft green strap leaves that ends in a long-lasting red-orange bracted spike, after which the rosette dies back and is replaced by offsets. It wants warm, humid, bright-but-shaded conditions and a free-draining, airy mount or mix.

Guzmania lingulata
Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0, 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

An epiphyte on trunks and branches in humid lowland and lower montane rainforest, holding water in the leaf rosette. It sits under or within the canopy, out of hard midday sun.

Mexico SoutheastBelizeGuatemalaHondurasNicaraguaCosta RicaPanamáCubaJamaicaHaitiDominican RepublicPuerto RicoLeeward Is.Windward Is.Trinidad-TobagoVenezuela

🔒 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-SA 3.0 licence, unmodified.