Species library › Guzmania › Guzmania megastachya
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Guzmania megastachya

An epiphytic Guzmania of the Lesser Antilles and Trinidad, originally described as Tillandsia megastachya. It lives in montane rainforest, ridge forest and mossy cloud forest on volcanic islands, mostly between about 500 and 1200 m. It needs cool-to-warm, constantly humid conditions, bright shade and never drying out.

At home, aim for
Day IntermediateTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Humid airBand in Plantistry
Light Dappled lightDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
No rest periodGrows on trees (epiphyte)

Where it grows wild

Herbarium labels describe rainforest, ridge forest, deep woods, forest edges, mossy forest and humid cloud forest on steep crater slopes that are almost always in cloud. It grows as an epiphyte on trunks and branches in these wet montane forests of volcanic peaks such as Morne Trois Pitons, Mt Diablotin, Mt Pelée and Soufrière.

Labelled records span about 500–1180 m, with most at 700–1000 m. A single 30 m record from the Dominican Republic is an outlier outside the accepted range.

GuadeloupeDominicaMartiniqueMontserratSaint LuciaSaint VincentGrenadaTrinidad and Tobago

🔒 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.