Nice Tillandsia, Tiffany. You may soon be rewarded with a bloom.

My Tillandsia aeranthos (Air plant) is blooming again. It grows on the trees of my city and it is so common that people don't pay too much attention to it. But it has gorgeous tiny flowers.

That is so pretty....I would find that hard to ignore no matter how common

Cecilia: That is one gorgeous Tillandsia ... I'd love it if they were common in my city. Beautiful!

Thank you Ginger and Lin. I'm glad you like it

Some Tillandsias are considered a danger to the trees in my city.
The trees have always been very important here. During the Spring the city trees bloom into different colors. The blue flowers of the jacaranda or the pink ones of the Tabebula (lapacho in Spanish) fill the streets with color.
But many people are concerned because Tillandsias grow on the branches of those trees and may cause a weakness of the host, when the infestation is severe.
Even when Tillandsias are epiphytes and not parasites, they may compete for the light with the host.

I cannot even imagine Tillandsia being so prevalent that they would weaken a mature tree. In the deep southern states in the US, our oaks (particularly the "Live Oak") and cypress trees are absolutely loaded with Spanish moss, a Tillandsia. As dense as this species gets, I have never heard of them harming a mature tree. As far as I know there are no Tillandsia that are parasitic. It is interesting that they would be considered a danger in cities in Argentina.

Hi Ken! It is difficult for me too to imagine that they could be a real danger but here you have some articles, if you can read Spanish. The common name of Tillandsias here is " clavel del aire"
This is about Tillandsia recurvata in the province of Cordoba
http://www.revistalacandela.co...

This is the most important newspaper of my city and it shows the concern about some " clavel del aire" growing on jacaranda in " diagonal 73" . Those are Tillandsias aeranthos.
http://www.eldia.com.ar/edicio...

Oh, it says, "es originario de Florida y Texas." After that it says the climate allows for it to spread excessively, at an alarming rate, even on electrical cables.
Translated: http://translate.google.com/tr...

Americans are willing to pay $10 and up for each one...

Is there something in FL/TX that eats these or otherwise keeps them in check? A disease?

The 2nd link didn't work for me.

Northerner's don't think we Southerner's can even speak English! LOL I neither speak nor read Spanish.

I would love to visit Argentina one day. I have been all over the Caribbean, Central America, and northern South America, but no further south than that.

Ken, if you ever come to Argentina and you like orchids and bromeliads, you shoul go to Iguazu Falls in the province of Misiones. They grow everywhere in the forest.

I usually go to the United States because one of my sons lives in Chicago.

Being someone who loves tropical plants and has a website dedicated to them, I love to visit tropical areas. It is too bad I live in a temperate zone and have to bring in well over 500 plants for the winter months.

500????? Holy buckets...........and I thought *I* was bad. LOL But mine are so big I need help to move some of them. And I have to use a loader tractor to move them.

I keep most of my plants small. I cut my "mother" fiddle leaf ficus back a foot in the spring and another foot in early fall, just to keep her at 7'. She is almost 25 years old and would be a 40' tree if I did not keep her trimmed. The pot is so large/heavy that I have to move her with a hand-truck. All my plumeria are cut back in the fall, at least those that are over 5' tall/wide, when I start them going dormant. They all have to fit into contractor bags, and though the bags are large, they won't handle anything over 5' tall or 3' wide. Some of my really large/heavy aloe vera and jade plants will have to stay outside. If they make it through the winter, so be it. If not, well, I have a lot of plants! I might take pity and bring in my prize, 20 years old jade. She faithfully blooms now and most people have never seen a blooming jade.

I try to keep my plants in 1 gallon pots or smaller, and that's a good selling/shipping size. Needless to say, my two greenhouses and enclosed porch are jam packed with plants for five or so months.

Oh, did I tell you I keep approximately 300 "baby" orchid plants in my orchid greenhouse year-round? At least I don't have to move them, just have to find room for all my outdoor orchids. Fall is a very busy time for me.

It seems to be a lot of work !!!.
I don't have so many plants and I don't have a greenhouse, so I grow all my plants outdoors all year round. Of course, I cannot grow everything I like but there are lots of plants that can stay in the garden during our mild Winters.
I grow many native orchids and they do great in the garden.
Look, this is an oncidium divaricatum. I love its long inflorescences. I'm holding the pot to show how long they are.

Impressive orchid!

¡Bienvenidos Ceci! That is a beautiful orchid!

I believe the problem is only with this particular tillandsia recurvata, which is apparently called 'ball moss' in Texas. There seems to be some evidence that it can constrict the circulation of the tree and cause bud loss. If there is really a lot of it, it can block sunlight to the tree's leaves as well. It is present here in the Yucatán but it mostly favors the Ramon (Brosimum alicastrum) trees which are cut frequently as food for livestock. I have never seen it in the decorative street trees like Flamboyán, Lluvia de Oro, Bauhinia. I do see it frequently on the electric lines out in the countryside. It mentions in one of the articles that Ceci linked that it prefers hot and humid weather and that the changing weather patterns in Córdoba, Argentina with higher temperatures and increased humidity had accelerated the problem. I've brought many of them home after a storm and none of them have survived on my terrace, I guess I was too nice to them

I saw many tillandsia, and many huge ones, in my travels in Central America and numerous Caribbean Islands. Of course most of these places were rain-forests, and it sure looked like the tillandsia were not slowing down any growth. But these were "wild" areas, not towns or cities. IF anyone has too many of them, send all you want to me. I would gladly pay postage for whatever you send. IF you know the proper name of what you send, that would be great, but I would take NOIDS without concern. Just Tree-Mail me if you have some you want to get rid of.

We had some strong thunderstorms this last week and I picked up another pile of tillandsia recurvata. I haven't had good luck keeping them here at the house even though they are wild and everywhere in the area. I'm going to pay more attention to these and give them more sun, we'll see if that is the solution. It's still raining every day so for now they are in a pile on the BBQ out in the rain and sun.

Jonna, I would think that more sun would not help.........after all, aren't they in the trees in the shade??? I keep the "ball" I made hanging in the shade of some ferns up in the g'house.