Tillandsia ionantha
A small, clumping, silver-scaled air plant that is common and variable from Mexico to Nicaragua. It grows on trees, cacti and rocks in mainly seasonally dry forest and scrub, from near sea level into the mountains. It expects bright light, warm days with markedly cooler nights, and a winter–spring dry season. Indoors it does best with frequent but quick-drying waterings and strong light.
Where it grows wild
An epiphyte, and sometimes a lithophyte, on branches, twigs, shrubs and cliffs in a very wide range of vegetation. It grows mostly in seasonally dry deciduous and semi-deciduous forest, oak and mixed forest, thorn scrub, gallery forest and even mangroves. Typical plants sit on outer branches in bright, broken shade to near full sun.
Literature gives about 450–2000 m for most forms, with var. ionantha at about 500–1700 m. The measured wild records span 0–2652 m with a median of 539 m, so some populations reach the lowlands and the coast.
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The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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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 Public domain licence, unmodified.