Hi, everyone. I have a little air plant I assume is some kind of Tillandsia ionantha. One of my coworkers gave it to me for my birthday about 1.5 years ago; I think it's just a common variety you could find in e.g. a grocery store. It lives inside a snail shell mounted on the wall of my window well. The plant is just placed inside the shell, and not glued or fastened to it in any way. The shell has a drain hole drilled into the bottom. I water the plant...kind of 'whenever' (lol), by spritzing it with filtered water; the average frequency is once every few days, or daily during sunny weather. Some of the lower leaves have dried tips, but those have been there for a long time and have not progressed...I assume they were just casualties of imperfect care, in the store and from when I was first learning how to take care of it.
It seems happy where it is, and it basically sits there doing its thing. Recently I noticed these unusual little stalks growing out of it. At first I thought maybe they were flower spikes, but they don't look like any pictures of Tillandsia flower spikes I can find online. Anyone know what these are? Perhaps they are aerial roots?
I tried to take the clearest photos I could, but the whole plant is so tiny it's hard to get the growth into proper focus. The plant is moist because I just watered it. Here I moved the plant out of its shell, to show where the new growth is coming from:
