Tillandsia fasciculata

Tillandsia fasciculata Sw.

Common Names: Clustered Wild Pine, Common Wild Pine, Stiff Leaved Wild Pine, Dog Water Drink, Cardinal Airplant

Family: Bromeliaceace

Habit: Tillandsia fasciculata grows without discernible stems. The leaves are in a rosette forming a series of cups at their base that can hold water and detritus.   The leaves are parallel veined, involute towards the tips, 30-80 cm in length, acuminate to 3 cm wide and are a covered with a wax like coating.

The complete, perfect, actinomorphic flowers, each with a subtending bract, are arranged in a panicle of spikes that is shorter in length than the leaves.  The bracts are pinkish red turning yellowish and tightly appressed to the peduncle. There are 3 green unfused sepals in the calyx.  There are 3 pinkish purple petals in the corolla.  There are 6 stamens that are longer than the petals.  The ovary is superior with 3 locules and numerous seeds.  The fruit is a capsule. Each seed has a tuft of hair to assist in dispersal.

T. fasciculata grows in clumps and does not die off after flowering.

Habitat: Tillandsia fasciculata as an epiphyte or lithophyte in Dry Broadleaf Evergreen Formation- Forest/Shrublands (coppice) with a limestone substrate.

Distribution: Tillandsia fasciculata occurs throughout the southern and northern island groups of the Lucayan Archipelago, southern Florida, the Caribbean region and Central and South America.

Medicinal/Cultural/Economic usage: Tillandsia fasciculata is not known to be used medicinally in the Lucayan Archipelago.