Twisted-Banded Airplant

 The twisted-banded airplants (Tillandsia flexuosa Sw.) in our yard bloomed most of the summer, and are producing seeds now. This "airplant" is neither rare nor common in Florida, though I suspect loss of habitat is making in more infrequent. It ranges as far north as central Florida, and southward through the Caribbean, parts of Mexico and Central America, Columbia, Venezuela, and the Guianas. It also is a plant of the lowlands, staying from sea level to about 400 meters in elevation. It is quite salt tolerant, thriving in our yard only a few bits  of barrier islands away from the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the plants mounted on small trees got blown 90 -180 degrees off their axes during Hurricane Irma in 2017, but they gradually grew back toward the light. 

Tillandsia flexuosa and pup

The typical plant could be described as "loosely wrapped," with around 10 -15 stiff, leathery leaves arranged in a loose spiral. After the plant has produced seeds it eventually falls apart. The size and appearance of Tillandsia flexuosa vary dramatically, depending on where the plants are growing. The specimens growing in the harsh scrub of the Naples Preserve or Rookery Bay's upland areas are gray/silver, sometimes with tinges of crimson, with darker gray horizontal bands. 

Young T. flexuosa in Naples Preserve

Those living in more shade are progressively a greener gray/almost white, with darker green horizontal bands. The leaves may recurve rather dramatically or remain more upright. I have observed the greatest degree of recurving in plants in fairly deep shade, and suspect it is the plant's way of seeking more light. The plant produces pups, and over time will form a small colony. Given the behavior of the plants in our yard, it germinates fairly easily as well.

T. flexuosa seedlings on Fiddlewood

Do you see the anole?

The inflorescence, which can grow up to a meter tall, is branched, with flowers on alternate sides of the branches. Each branch ends in a pair of bracts, one  normal-sized and one much smaller and sterile.  The bracts and flowers grow at fairly wide angles to the branches - often near 90 degrees, which gives a slightly zig-zag appearance. I imagine that this, and the slight curvature of the areas between the bracts gives the branch greater strength and stability, since the process of flowering and seed production is fairly long. 

Inflorescence

The flowers are a deep, warm pink, and open over a long period, so the plant produces points of intense color, rather than a large display. Once the seeds have dispersed the insides of the bracts reveal themselves to be a deep, rich maroon, which also is attractive. A flower arranger probably would love the dried inflorescences. 

A non-local variety of the plant is viviparous, meaning that the seed germinates in the fruit before the fruit is detached. The mangrove "pencil" is a good example of vivipary. I have noticed seedlings on the dried branches of the inflorescence, and assumed that they had fallen and been trapped by residual fibers, but obviously I need to observe my plants much more closely next year.  The photo below shows somewhat out-of-focus green seedlings on the right of the inflorescence.

 

My first plants came from a legal rescue in the Panther Reserve, just north of the Fakahatchee Slough. Several large trees had been felled to make room for a greenhouse for native orchids, and I and fellow members of a botanical identification course visiting for the day were welcomed to harvest the epiphytes. (The trees were going to the shredder). Since then, I've become an active parking-lot stalker, especially where there are old live oak trees. Usually the fallen epiphytes are the ubiquitous ball moss (T. recurvata L) and wisps of Spanish moss(T. usneoides L), but I've found a fair number of the twisted-banded airplants as well. I haven't found that many lately, so maybe the supply has been exhausted.

I occasionally find pot-belly airplants (T. paucifolia Baker)  and Southern needleleaf (T. setaceae Sw) on or under declining shrubs. I don't take any from a healthy host, but if the shrub is definitely headed for the shredder, I will break off dead branchlets and the airplants. I stopped picking once, because I felt greedy, only to notice the next week that all the plants had been uprooted and replaced, so I won't have as many scruples now when it comes to harvesting from dying shrubs in parking lots. 

Our plants thrive in the shade and branches  of a Fiddlewood. It never has flourished, and I fear it eventually will die, but in the meantime it provides a perfect habitat for the Tillandsias and other epiphytes.

For more on Spanish Moss, see my post on April 12, 2019, "Southern Gothic - Spanish Moss."

See also "Parking Lot Potbelly." Feb. 27, 2019.

Tillandsia fasciculata - The "Cardinal" Airplant

 Tillandsia fasciculata is in the process of blooming now. Some in the yard have flowered already, but others are just getting started. It is one of our most striking Tillandsias, and people often mount it on driftwood or trees in their front yards. This species of Tillandsia makes pups, and will form large colonies over time. Sometimes people traveling through the Big Cypress mistake large T. fasciculata colonies in the treetops for squirrel nests.

The colony below started as a tiny rosette - the windblown seed obviously found a foothold in the rough bark of the palm tree. I didn't put it there. It's even bigger now, because this photo is several years old. The plants in our yard were here when we bought the property in 1994. They have grown exuberantly over the years. I have several additional young specimens that obviously started from seeds.

Tillandsia fasciculata
Probably var. densispica

This species sends up a branched inflorescence. As is the case with Tillandsias, the bracts, not the flowers, are the main show. Immature bracts are mostly pinks, yellows and greens. The illustration below isn't the greatest, but it  gives some idea of the colors and shape of the immature inflorescence.  Side branches are just beginning to form.

Young Bloom Spike, Tillandsia fasciculata

As the plant matures the bracts take on much more saturated colors. The sketch below shows one fully opened purple flower, and 1 flower bud. Both the mealy, "scurfy" texture of Tillandsias and the shininess of the bracts can be hard to capture in watercolor. To suggest the scaly surface, I have tried light applications of colored pencils, dry brush watercolor technique, going over the dried surface with white watercolor or marker,  granulating watercolors, and combinations of techniques. (Granulating watercolors are made of pigments that don't dissolve evenly, but form little clumps of color as they dry. They are great at creating the illusion of texture. I use them for things like bark, rocks, sand, rust, or hairy surfaces). I still haven't found a one-size-fits-all technique.


Reds and greens in watercolor look shiny while wet, but dull considerably as they dry. (This actually can be a problem with watercolor in general). In the study below, I went over some of the red bracts with colored pencil to give them more punch. It's pretty obvious which ones I retouched.

Watercolor and Colorerd Pencil Study
Tillandsia fasciculata

 The scurfy texture of  Tillandsias  comes from specialized structures covering the leaves called trichomes. "Trichome" in general is a term meaning hair, or hairlike extension. In the case of Tillandsias, it refers to specialized structures consisting of both live and dead cells which absorb water and nutrients. On these species they are roughly cup-shaped, and mounted on a stem leading to the middle layers of the leaf where photosynthesis occurs.

Rough Sketch of Much Magnified Trichomes covering Tillandsia Leaf from  Above
Stems don't Show

The trichomes are very good at reflecting light, often giving the plants a silvery or "haloed" appearance. This feature reduces water loss by the leaves, and also protects them from harsh sunlight.  Most of Florida's native tillandsias look more silvery than hairy, but the trichomes are obvious under magnification. (Tillandsia pruinosa, the "fuzzy-wuzzy" airplant, is the exception).  In general, the hairier  the  plant, the more drought it can survive.

Tillandsias also reduce water loss by using the photosynthetic process seen in cacti and many succulents, "Crassulacean Acid Metabolism, or CAM. It's complicated, so I'm just going to say here that the stomata of the leaves stay closed during the day, and open at night. Another way of putting it is that it is sort of the opposite of regular photosynthesis, which goes on during daylight hours.

Once common, this airplant is now state listed as threatened due to illegal collecting, habitat loss and the ravages of the Mexican bromeliad weevil. In the early part of the 20th century, truckloads of blooming Tillandsias and orchids were harvested for sale "up North." Though the beetle has been documented in our county, the Tillandsias in our yard have been spared so far. I  keep an eye on them and hold my breath.

Tillandsia fasciculata
Briggs Nature Center Boardwalk

Tillandsia fasciculata grows in hammocks, cypress swamps and pinelands. It occurs in the Florida Keys through the north-central peninsula, Mexico, the West Indies, Central America, and northern South America. There are several varieties.  I am assuming that the ones here are var. densispica, because the other native varieties are rare and limited to Dade County. Tropiflora Nursery in Sarasota sells a rare white variety, Tillandsia fasciculata var. densispica alba.

They receive no care at all in our yard, but are protected in or under shrubs or trees. If I am watering something  nearby, I may give them a sprinkle too. If one falls off onto the ground, I stick it back between branches to reduce the chance of rotting.

Insects, lizards and other small animals may shelter in their leaves. Once a beautiful corn snake crawled out from a large bromeliad I had brought indoors to draw. Catching it to take it back outside was no easy matter! I have seen a photograph of a Florida panther sheltering/hiding behind a large Tillandsia fasciculata colony.

All in all, it is yet another of Florida's beautiful native plants, and like too many of them is besieged by our activities. 

Southern Gothic - Spanish Moss

 No Southern Gothic movie would be complete without the other-worldly festoons of Spanish moss, Tillandsia usneoides. It certainly can convey a mood of eerie loneliness and mystery, but for southernors it pretty much just blends into the background. That's a shame, because as garden writer Rufino Osorio puts it, "were it not so common, (S. moss) would rightly be considered one of the wonders of the plant world."*

Spanish Moss Hanging from  Strangler Fig - Rookery Bay Reserve 

Spanish moss is the ultimate epiphyte. Osorio writes, "It has come as close to an aerial existence as a plant can get without sprouting wings and flying." *  The plant is much-reduced, consisting only of a few alternate leaves in a typical Bromeliad rosette wrapped around a long, wiry stem, which produces another rosette in an endless chain.

Tillandsia usneoides - Habit

The leaves produce tiny flower spikes. The flowers also are tiny - maybe 3-4 millimeters across, and very easy to miss. The 3 petals are yellow-green. The flowers are said to be fragrant, but I have trouble detecting an odor. They are pollinated by tiny insects. My plants are flowering now, but not abundantly. 

Flower - Much Magnified

Tillandsia usneoides gets its name from the "Old Man's Beard" lichen, Usnea, which it resembles superficially. The photograph below shows a colony of Usnea that has benn blown to the ground in a scrub area of Rookery Bay Estuarine Reserve.

Usnea - Probably Usnea florida

Like other epiphytes ("airplants") Spanish moss gets its nutrients from rainfall and throughfall, rainwater filtered through leaves and other structures. For this reason it can be used to measure heavy metal pollution in urban areas.** T. usneoides is covered by a layer of specialized umbrella-like scales. The scales are made up of dead cells, with a living stalk. The dead cells soak up water and dissolved nutrients, which the stem then transports down into the mesophyll, the tissue sandwiched between the top and bottom epidermis.

Habit, Specialized Moisture-Absorbing Scales  Right Center

The plant propagates itself by seeds, or by wind and animal dispersal. Birds may use it to build nests. It can tolerate anything from the extreme drought and heat of Florida scrub, where it likely survives on dews and fogs, to shadier and wetter situations. If a strand ends up in a favorable site, even a utility wire,  it will start growing. "My" Spanish moss was left behind as a few strands by the previous homeowner, and I have divided it as it flourished. Twenty-odd years later I have 3 large colonies.( I'm not sure whether the festoons are one plant curled and twisted around itself, or several plants). 

Ecologically it has value as a nutrient recycler, and as habitat for small insects and arachnids. Certain birds and at least one species of bat use it for hiding/roosting. Birds use it to construct nests. Some people think that it is parasitic and that it kills trees, but that isn't so. Healthy trees can produce new leaves faster than the Spanish moss can grow, but a declining tree provides an ideal habitat, so that it might look like the plant has killed it. That said, a heavy growth might make survival harder for a declining plant, because it would shade some of the leaves. Sometimes the colony can get so large and heavy that it breaks branches. 

Spanish moss is widespread in the United States - throughout the Southeast through Texas, and north to Virginia. It also occurs in the Caribbean, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Mexico, Central America and South America down to Chile and Argentina. In some of these areas it is restricted to the coastal plains or lowland and swamp habitats. 

T. usneoides on Scrub Oaks - Naples Preserve, Florida

Spanish moss was, and to some extent, is still used by America's indiginous people for many purposes. Camp bedding, medicines, balls for sports, plugging leaks in dugout canoes and  fire arrows are just some of them. Stripping off the outer layers of the plant leaves a tough, black "wire," which could be used for making cloth or rope. ***

Pioneers used it it many of the same ways. Up until around the 1920's harvesting Spanish moss provided much needed cash for subsistence southeastern farmers. They gathered it, composted it to remove the outer covering, and took it to "ginneries" to be combed and baled. It was sold as upholstery stuffing. The last "moss" factory in Gainesville, Florida, burned in 1963.

It was hard, sometimes dangerous work, as people needed some kind of long pole with a hook to snag it from trees, and sometimes brought down snakes and insects along with the moss. Moss gathering is still practiced in some southern states, a tradition handed down from one generation to another. Now the primary market for Spanish moss is horticultural or for florists' arrangements, either dried or green. **** Several cultivars are available commercially.

Spanish Moss on Oak, Hickey's Creek, Lee County Florida

Spanish moss is an integral feature of the southern landscape. Long may it wave!


Sources:

* Rufino Osorio. A Gardener's Guide to Florida's Native Plants. University Press of Florida. 2001. p.310.

**Oxford 400.Oxford 400

***Bradley C. Bennett. "An Introduction to the Seminole People of South Florida and Their Plants. Part11: Seminole Plant Use." The Palmetto. Fall/Winter, 1997. pp. 16-17, 22.

****Kristine Stewart, Ph.D. "Gold Mine of the Air: The Spanish Moss Industry of Florida." The Palmetto. Vol.21:1. (Nov. 2001).  pp.12-13, back cover.

The Palmetto is the quarterly journal of the Florida Native Plant Society.Florida Native Plant Society

Parking Lot Potbelly

The potbelly airplant, Tillandsia paucifolia, occurs only occasionally in southern and central Florida, so imagine my surprise to discover a small cluster in the Winn Dixie (supermarket) parking lot on Marco Island! It was hanging by a splinter, upside down on a broken branch, just waiting for the next mow-and-go crew to whack it away. It must have been kismet, because I never park in that section of the lot.

Had its chances of survival been better I would have left it. As it was, it stood no chance at all, so I took it home with me, and after dunking it in a pot of rainwater, I put it under the Fiddlewood in a somewhat shaded, but basically bright spot. I hope it will flourish for me. Legally rescued Tillandsia fasciculata, Tillandsia balbisiana and Tillandsia flexuosa, all Florida natives, reproduce in the yard, so I am hopeful for the potbelly.

Tillandsia paucifolia - Potbelly Airplant

Tillandsias are epiphytes. Their roots serve mainly to anchor them to trees or sometimes rocks, and they absorb nutrients and water through their leaves. They often have a felty, scurfy, or downy appearance due to a covering of specially-adapted cells. Depending on exposure the species listed above appear in various shades of green in some shade, to gray-pink in harsh scrub.

The potbelly airplane is short and stocky, as its common name implies. It doesn't have as many leaves as most other Tillandsias, hence the species epithet paucifolia. Newer leaves may have subtle rose tints. The plant in the photo below looks like it is getting ready to send up a bloom spike. The bracts of the potbelly are pink, and the flowers a bluish lavender.

Potbelly in Naples Preserve 

The potbelly is quite tough, and will grow in oak scrub, as in the picture above, taken in the Naples Preserve in Naples, Florida.  The potbelly also occurs in the West Indies, Mexico, and Central and South America. (Richard Wunderlin. Guide to the Vascular Plants of Florida. University Press of Florida. 1998; Flora of North America).


Text, photos and artwork by Jeanette Lee Atkinson