Tillandsia setacea |
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needle-leaf airplant, southern needleleaf, thin-leaf wild-pine |
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Habit | Plants densely clustering, flowering to 30 cm. |
Stems | short. |
Leaves | 15–30, many-ranked, finely appressed, erect, green to reddish green, 20–30 × 0.1–0.4 cm, uniformly scaly throughout; sheath rust-colored, broadly triangular, flat, not forming pseudobulb, 0.8–1.8 cm wide; blade very narrowly linear-triangular, ribbed, leathery, margins involute, apex filiform-attenuate. |
Inflorescences | scape conspicuous, erect, 8–15 cm, 2–4 mm diam.; bracts densely imbricate, erect; sheath of bracts, especially upper ones, narrowing abruptly into blade; spikes erect, palmate (rarely simple), linear, compressed, 1–4 × 0.5–0.6 cm, apex acute; branches 1–5. |
Flowers | 3–15, conspicuous; sepals with adaxial pair connate, elliptic, keeled, 0.8–1 cm, thin-leathery, veined, apex acute, surfaces slightly scaly; corolla tubular, petals erect, lavender, ligulate, 1.8–2.2 cm; stamens exserted; stigma exserted, conduplicate-spiral. |
Fruits | 2–3 cm. |
Floral | bracts imbricate, erect, green or tinged red, broad (covering all or most of rachis, rachis not visible at anthesis), ovate, keeled only toward apex, 0.8–1.2 cm, thin-leathery, base not visible at anthesis, apex attenuate to acute, surfaces appressed-pale scaly, venation slight. |
Tillandsia setacea |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. |
Habitat | Epiphytic on a variety of hosts in swamps and humid forests |
Elevation | 0–60 m (0–200 ft) |
Distribution |
FL; GA; Mexico; Central America; West Indies
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Discussion | It is probable that Mexican and Central American materials represent one or more additional species. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 22. |
Parent taxa | Bromeliaceae > Tillandsia |
Sibling taxa | |
Synonyms | T. tenuifolia |
Name authority | Swartz: Flora Indiae Occidentalis 1: 593. (1797) |
Web links |