Tillandsia bulbosa
A small epiphytic airplant with a swollen, bulb-like base and thin, twisting, tubular leaves, widespread in humid lowland forest from southern Mexico and the Caribbean to Brazil. Unlike the silvery desert tillandsias, it is a greener, rainforest species that wants more water and humidity. Give it bright filtered light, warmth, frequent wetting and fast drying.
Where it grows wild
It grows as an epiphyte on trunks and branches in humid lowland forest, including Atlantic Forest in Bahia, dense submontane rainforest, sandy-soil mussununga forest and cocoa agroforests. One Brazilian label calls it shade-loving on a trunk; elsewhere it grows on well-lit branches. The hollow bulbous leaf bases are often occupied by ants.
Mostly lowland: recorded from sea level to 1715 m, median 311 m, from 343 records with elevation.
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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.