SIZE: 3"+ Clump With Multiple Pup. These will often have spent blooms and dried older ancestral plants in the clump which is to be expected with this species.
DESCRIPTION: Recurvata AKA "Ball Moss", is one of the Tillandsia species that is native to the United States. It grows in interesting, wild clumping patterns. Recurvata is known for its ability to grow in many different environments and is a great plant for beginner air plant enthusiasts. If you have seen wild recurvata, you will notice that our greenhouse grown recurvata is much more symmetrical and eager to bloom than wild ball moss. In habit, Tillandsia recurvata tends to form a spheroid ranging in size from a golf ball to a soccer ball, though this is actually a collection of multiple "pups" growing joined together.
Ball moss is indigenous to the warmer regions of the Americas; it ranges from the southern United States to northern Argentina and Chile. The northernmost limit of its natural occurrence is coastal Georgia (where it is listed as a State "Special Concern" species), although it has been introduced into coastal South Carolina on landscaping trees. It has been reported in nature from Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, Mexico, most of Central and South America, and many of the islands in the West Indies.
Recurvata produce 2-5 flowers, with blue to violet petals, on a long stem growing from a central mass of leaves. It produces a seed capsule up to 2 cm (3/4 in.) long.
TAXONOMY:
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Clade: | Commelinids |
| Order: | Poales |
| Family: | Bromeliaceae |
| Genus: | Tillandsia |
| Species: |
T. recurvata
|