Species library › Tillandsia › Tillandsia landbeckii
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Tillandsia landbeckii

A small grey Tillandsia from the coastal fog deserts of Peru and northern Chile, where it lies loose on bare sand, often with few or no roots, and lives almost entirely on fog. Wikipedia describes it as an aerophyte, a distinct life form. Some high-Andean Peruvian records are usually treated as a separate subspecies. Grow it in very strong light with cool nights, frequent misting that dries quickly, and no substrate at all.

Tillandsia landbeckii
Photo: FabrizioPlasencia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day Cool-growingTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Dry airBand in Plantistry
Light Full sunDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
No rest period

Where it grows wild

On shifting sand and gravel in the coastal desert, often in pure stands (tillandsia lomas) where the fog layer meets the coastal slopes. Plants are loose or barely anchored rather than rooted, and many specimen labels note it growing with T. marconae on sandy plains. Andean records from Ancash to Cusco come from dry inter-Andean valleys and scrub.

Coastal fog-belt records cluster at about 600–1250 m (for example 919–1136 m around Arica, 1045 m above Iquique, 1240 m at Lomas de Atiquipa), with a few near the coast at 50–450 m. Separate Andean records lie at 2000–3750 m.

PeruChile

🔒 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

Grow Tillandsia landbeckii? Add it to a free garden and its full profile opens. Pro opens all 38,374 profiles in the library, plants and fungi.

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.