Tillandsia ionantha

Tillandsia ionantha
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Clade:	Commelinids
Order:	Poales
Family:	Bromeliaceae
Genus:	Tillandsia
Subgenus:	Tillandsia subg. Tillandsia
Species:	T. ionantha
Binomial name
	Tillandsia ionantha; Planchon
Synonyms
	Pityrophyllum gracile Beer; Tillandsia rubentifolia Poiss. & Menet;

Tillandsia ionantha, the air plant (a common name shared by most species in its genus),^[2] is a species of plant in the genus Tillandsia. This species is native to Central America and Mexico. It is also reportedly naturalized in Broward County, Florida, United States.^[1]^[3]^[4]^[5]

Description

They are acaulescent or sometimes shortly caulescent plants, with a size of 6–8 cm high. The leaves are 4–9 cm long; with pods 0.6–1 cm wide, densely patent fabric; narrow triangular sheets, 0.3–0.4 cm wide, dense lepidota indument, foliaceous bracts; compound inflorescence (of simple appearance due to the reduction of the spikes to 1 flower), with 1–3 flowers, primary foliaceous bracts, much longer than the spikes, floral bracts 3 cm long, longer than the sepals and covering them in the anthesis, ecarinated, inconspicuously nervate, glabrous, membranous, sessile flowers; sepals are 2 cm long, free, the posterior carinate, the anterior ecarinated; purple petals. Capsules are 2.5–4.5 cm long.^[6]

Taxonomy

Tillandsia ionantha was described by Jules Emile Planchon and published in Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l'Europe 10: 101, t. 1006. 1854–1855 [1855].^[7]

Etymology

Tillandsia: generic name that was named by Carl Linnaeus in 1738 in honor of the Finnish doctor and botanist Elias Tillandz (originally Tillander; 1640–1693).^[8]
ionantha: epithet Latin meaning "with violet flowers"^[9]