Tillandsia flexuosa Sw.

Plants single or in small clusters, flowering to 1 m. Stems short. Leaves 10--20, many-ranked, spreading to recurved, spirally twisted, gray or reddish, banded silver, to 40 ´ 1--2.5 cm, appressed-grayish-scaly; sheath dark chestnut brown, broadly elliptic to ovate, not inflated, not forming pseudobulb, 2--3 cm wide; blade narrowly triangular, leathery, channeled to involute, apex attenuate. Inflorescences: scape conspicuous, erect, 15--40 cm, 3--5 mm diam.; bracts laxly imbricate, erect to spreading, distal widely spaced, like leaves but gradually smaller; sheath of bracts narrowing abruptly into blade; spikes very laxly 2--6-flowered, erect to spreading, simple or 2-pinnate, linear in outline, 12--40 ´ 3--4.5 cm, apex acute; lateral branches 2--8. Floral bracts widely spaced, spreading with flowers, gray or reddish, exposing most of rachis at anthesis, elliptic, not keeled, 2.3--3.1 cm, thin-leathery, base not visible at anthesis, apex acute, surfaces glabrous to slightly scaly. Flowers 5--40, conspicuous; sepals free, elliptic, not keeled, 2--3 cm, leathery to thin-leathery, veined, apex obtuse, surfaces glabrous; corolla tubular, petals erect, apex spreading, pink to dark rose, ligulate, to 4 cm; stamens exserted; stigma exserted, conduplicate-spiral. Fruits to 7.5 cm.

Fla.; West Indies; Central America; South America.

Flowering summer.

Epiphytic in exposed habitats often near the coast; 0--30m.

Tillandsia aloifolia Hooker

Distribucion en Costa Rica: Península de Osa; se encuentra a elevaciones de 0 a 100 m.
Distribucion General: Sur de Florida y De Panamá al norte de Suramérica y Las Antillas.

Hierba epífita.

Al igual que las especies del mismo subgénero a la que Tillandsia flexuosa pertenece, se relaciona simbióticamente con hormigas, las cuales construyen sus nidos en la base de las hojas.

Epífitas. Hojas de 25 a 36.5 de cm. Roseta seudobulbosa. Vainas canela-marrones. Láminas de 1.9 a 3.2 cm., usualmente triangulares, involutas. Escapo de 19 a 36 cm., de erecto a suberecto. Brácteas más largas que los entrenudos. Inflorescencia erecta de 8 a 33.5 cm., de simple a laxamente unipinnada, terminal. Brácteas florales de 1.5 a 2.6 cm., verdes, más cortas que los sépalos, no imbricadas, ecarinadas, nervadas. Sépalos de 2 a 2.5 cm. Pétalos rojizos basalmente, de morados a lila distalmente. Cápsulas de 5.5 a 7 cm. Se distingue de Tillandsia subulifera por su roseta más robusta, sus hojas más anchas e inflorescencia con las flores laxamente dispuestas.

Localidad del tipo: Colombia, Cartagena.
Depositario del tipo: T: W.
Recolector del tipo: Jacquin (s.n)

Tillandsia flexuosa Sv. Prodr. 56. 1788
TiUandsiaUnuifolia"h." ]3.cq.Se.St p. Am. 92. 1763. Not T. lenuifolia h. 1762.
Tillandsia flexuosa P fasciata Lindl. Bot. Reg. 9; under pi. 749. 1823.
Tillandsia aloifolia Hook. Exot. Fl. pi. 205. 1826.
Tillandsia patens Willd.; Schultes, in R. & S. Syst. Veg. 7: 1229. 1830.
Vriesea aloifolia Beer, Bromel. 95. 1857.
Vriesea lenuifolia Beer, Bromel. 96, in part. 1857.
Platystachys patens K. Koch, Ind. Sem. Hort. Berol. 1873: App. 4: 5. 1874.
Tillandsia flexuosa var. vivipara Andr^, Bromel. Andr. 82. 1889.
Plant stemless, 2-15 dm. high; leaves 10-20 in a dense often subbulbous rosette, 2-5 dm. long, densely pale-appressed-lepidote, usually marked with broad white transverse stripes, the outer bladeless, squamiform; sheaths ovate, very large but passing into the blade without clear distinction; blades narrowly triangular, about 25 mm. wide, acuminate, then abruptly and I)ungently acute, stiff, cur-ed; scape erect, slender, glabrous; scape-bracts erect, tubular-involute, elliptic, acute or obtuse, appressed-lepidote, at least the upper ones shorter than the internodes; inflorescence simple or very laxly bipinnate; primary bracts like the upper scapebracts, much shorter than the sterile bases of the axillary branches; branches ascending, up to 4 dm. long, verj' laxly flowered; rhachis slender, flexuous, sharply angled, glabrous; floral bracts spreading with the flowers, elliptic, broadly acute, 2-3 cm. long, equaling or shorter than the sepals, about equaling the internodes, ecarinate, chartaceous, prominently nerved, densely or sparsely appressed-lepidote; pedicels up to 7 mm. long; sepals narrowly elliptic, obtuse, 2-3 cm. long, 7 mm. wide, free, subchartaceous, prominently nerved, sparsely lepidote or glabrous; petals tubular-erect, linear, acute, up to 4 cm. long, white or rose or purple; stamens exserted; capsule slenderly cylindric, acuminate, up to 7 cm. long.
Type locality: Cartagena, Colombia.
Distribution: Southern Florida and West Indies; Panama; also in Guiana, Venezuela, and Colombia.

Tillandsia flexuosa, the twisted airplant, is a species of bromeliad in the genus Tillandsia. This species is native to Central America, southeastern Mexico (Veracruz, Yucatán Peninsula), northern South America (Colombia, Venezuela, Guianas) and the United States (Florida).

Tillandsia flexuosa là một loài thuộc chi Tillandsia. Đây là loài bản địa của Costa Rica, México, Venezuela và Hoa Kỳ.