Monographs Details:
Authority:

Smith, Lyman B. & Downs, Robert J. 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 14 (2): 663-1492. (Published by NYBG Press)
Family:

Bromeliaceae
Scientific Name:

Tillandsia tenuifolia L.
Description:

Description - Plant very variable, more or less caulescent with stem to 25 cm long, often branching and associated in great mats. Leaves densely polystichous along the stem, 5-10 cm long, densely and minutely appressed-lepidote throughout; sheaths small and inconspicuous, barely distinct from the blades; blades narrowly triangular, subulate-attenuate, channeled above, 2-7 mm wide. Scape erect or ascending, slender, short, largely concealed by the leaves; scape-bracts erect, imbricate, elliptic, caudate, membranaceous, rose. Inflorescence about equaling the leaves, simple, polystichous-flowered, ovoid, densely 4-10-flowered. Floral bracts like the scape-bracts but suborbicular and less caudate, much exceeding the sepals, punctulate-lepidote, prominently nerved; flowers erect. Sepals lanceolate, acute, glabrous, 10 mm long, membranaceous, carinate and much connate posteriorly; petals blue, white, or rose, 20 mm long, the claw linear, the blade oblong, broadly obtuse; stamens emerging from the throat of the corolla, shorter than the style, filaments transversely plicate. Capsule cylindric, 15 mm long.