13. Tillandsia fasciculata Swartz, Prodr. 56. 1788.
Cardinal airplant
Plants clustering, flowering to 65 cm. Stems short. Leaves 20--50, many-ranked, erect to spreading, gray to gray-green, 25--50 ´ 1--2.5 cm, grayish-scaly; sheath dark rust colored toward base, broadly elliptic, flat, not forming pseudobulb, 3--4 cm wide; blade narrowly triangular, tapering evenly from base to apex, stiff, leathery, channeled to involute, apex attenuate. Inflorescences: scape conspicuous, erect or ascending, 10--35 cm, 4--8 mm diam.; bracts densely imbricate, erect to spreading, like leaves but gradually smaller; sheath of bracts narrowing gradually into blade; spikes erect to spreading, densely palmate to laxly 2(--3)-pinnate, narrowly elliptic, compressed, 5--20 ´ 1.5--2.5 cm, apex acute; lateral branches 3--15. Floral bracts imbricate, erect, red, red-yellow-green, or green, broad (covering all or most of rachis, rachis not visible at anthesis), elliptic, keeled, 2--4.8 ´ 1.2--2 cm, thin-leathery, base not visible at anthesis, apex acute, surfaces glabrous or slightly scaly toward apex, venation even to slight. Flowers 10--50, conspicuous; sepals with adaxial pair connate, lanceolate, to 1/2 keeled, to 4.2 cm, leathery, slightly veined, apex acute, surfaces glabrous to slightly scaly; corolla tubular, petals erect, violet (white), ligulate, 5--6 cm; stamens exserted; stigma exserted, conduplicate-spiral. Fruits to 4 cm.
Varieties 7 (3 in the flora): North America; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America.
SELECTED REFERENCE
Luther, H. E. 1993. A new record for Tillandsia (Bromeliaceae) in Florida. Rhodora 95: 342--347.
