Tillandsia paucifolia
A small, silvery air plant with a swollen, bulb-like base, native from Florida and the Caribbean through Mexico and Central America to Colombia and Venezuela. It grows on trees in bright, warm, lowland habitats, especially on pines and mangroves in south Florida. Its thick coat of trichomes suits bright light and frequent drying, so it does best with strong light, good air movement and brief wetting.
Where it grows wild
An epiphyte on the branches of trees in open, lowland habitats: pine rocklands and flatwoods, cypress swamps, mangroves and hammocks in south Florida, and dry to seasonal forests elsewhere. In southwest Florida it grows mainly on slash pine but is not host-specific. Its hollow, swollen base is often occupied by ants.
Mostly lowland. The 157 records with an elevation span 0–1407 m (median 50 m).
🔒 Growing it like that
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 CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, unmodified.