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Tillandsia balbisiana; photograph (c) Ben Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Ben Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-19

Tillandsia balbisiana Schult. & Schult.f.

Northern needleleaf; Balbis' airplant; Northern Needleleaf Airplant; Inflated wild pine

Bromeliaceae · Florida, Mexico Northeast +21 · listed by its genus as an epiphyte

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Tillandsia balbisiana, photograph (c) Ben Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tillandsia balbisiana, photograph (c) Ben Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tillandsia balbisiana, photograph (c) Lon Brehmer, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tillandsia balbisiana, photograph (c) Lon Brehmer, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tillandsia balbisiana, photograph (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tillandsia balbisiana, photograph (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY) 61 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
19.4°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,288mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–38DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, May to November (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Tillandsia balbisiana, common name northern needleleaf, is a species of bromeliad in the genus Tillandsia. This species in native to Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, the West Indies, and Florida.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Tillandsia balbisiana", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Tillandsia

Tillandsia is a genus of around 650 species of evergreen, perennial flowering plants in the family Bromeliaceae, native to the forests, mountains and deserts of the Neotropics, from northern Mexico and the southeastern United States to Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to central Argentina. Their leaves, more or less silvery in color, are covered with specialized cells (trichomes) capable of rapidly absorbing water that gathers on them.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Tillandsia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as an epiphyte, listed under the genus Tillandsia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,704 mm of 2,310 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 1.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,310 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,704 mm of it May to November. Wettest month May at 280 mm, driest month January at 71 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,258 mm to 3,543 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,288 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,310 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 19.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 17.3 °C to 20.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.1 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 19.4 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Tillandsia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Tillandsia balbisiana through the yearWarmest months March, April, May, June, July, August and September, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 19.4 °C; 2,310 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°35°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 28–38RH 63–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 34 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 24–2827 / 25–2928 / 25–3028 / 25–3128 / 25–3228 / 25–3128 / 25–3128 / 26–3228 / 26–3127 / 26–2927 / 24–2827 / 24–28
Night °C19 / 17–2120 / 18–2120 / 18–2221 / 19–2321 / 19–2421 / 19–2520 / 18–2520 / 19–2520 / 18–2520 / 18–2420 / 19–2320 / 18–22
Rain mm71 / 41–13290 / 45–131118 / 41–145208 / 45–299280 / 106–435236 / 165–424216 / 143–441232 / 158–417260 / 198–391266 / 143–373214 / 83–288119 / 59–182
DLI30 / 25–3432 / 30–3535 / 32–3736 / 31–4135 / 29–4037 / 28–4038 / 30–4238 / 33–4235 / 32–3931 / 28–3528 / 25–3228 / 23–32
RH %65 / 59–7064 / 58–6863 / 58–6865 / 59–6966 / 60–6966 / 63–7065 / 62–7065 / 62–7067 / 63–7067 / 62–7167 / 63–7166 / 61–71

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1119 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum 17.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.3 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 34 grid cells holding the 79 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1683:2086 (5.825, -75.675). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 34 distinct grid cells holding 79 of the 79 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1683:2086 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 6.00_-75.625, lapse-corrected -1119 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 729 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeFlorida, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, Turks-Caicos Is., Venezuela, Colombia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker25.811, -81.224 · in the densest population, 68 records (42% of those in range)
Kew's description“epiphyte” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 162 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 79 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 92 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2203 km away. 83 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 162 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Tillandsia balbisiana, photograph 1did not loadTillandsia balbisiana, photograph 2did not loadTillandsia balbisiana, photograph 3did not loadTillandsia balbisiana, photograph 4did not loadTillandsia balbisiana, photograph 5did not loadTillandsia balbisiana, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Ben Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Lon Brehmer, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Urera baccifera Urera baccifera Urticaceae Photo: CC BY, Marcos Gramaglia Guarianthe hennisiana Orchidaceae Solanum mammosum Solanum mammosum Nipplefruit Photo: CC0, author not statedBunchosia nitida Bunchosia nitida Malpighiaceae Photo: CC BY, Eduardo Chacón MadrigalMiconia minutiflora Miconia minutiflora Melastomataceae Photo: CC0, author not statedBauhinia picta Bauhinia picta Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Edwin Rivera Millán

Other Tillandsia 199 in the reference

Tillandsia abdita Bromeliaceae Tillandsia achyrostachys Tillandsia achyrostachys Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Arturo Castro CastroTillandsia aeranthos Tillandsia aeranthos Bromeliaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedTillandsia aizoides Tillandsia aizoides Bromeliaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedTillandsia albertiana Tillandsia albertiana Bromeliaceae Photo: Public domain, Dave PapeTillandsia albida Tillandsia albida Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, José Belem Hernández DíazTillandsia andicola Tillandsia andicola Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Benjamin BenderTillandsia andreana Tillandsia andreana Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Laurimar SepulvedaTillandsia araujei Tillandsia araujei Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, fmunozTillandsia arequitae Tillandsia arequitae Bromeliaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedTillandsia argentea Tillandsia argentea Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, J. L. Gómez-HechavarríaTillandsia argentina Tillandsia argentina Bromeliaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated all 200 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Platystachys digitata; Tillandsia cubensis; Tillandsia dressleri; Tillandsia urbaniana. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Bromeliaceae
Described by
Schult. & Schult.f.
Native to
Florida, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +20
Wild records
162 in range · 92 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 6.00_-75.625, lapse-corrected -1119 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1119 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 22 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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