55 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May, shaded
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Summary
Tillandsia capillaris is a species of flowering plant in the family Bromeliaceae. This species is native to southern and western South America (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador).
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Tillandsia capillaris", 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 or lithophyte”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (658 mm of 866 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.1 °C against a yearly mean of 14.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to September.
Rain
866 mm in the median year at the habitat, 658 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 160 mm, driest month June at 8 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 441 mm to 1,275 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 893 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 866 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 44 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).
Warmth and air
Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.2 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 0.4 °C to 7.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 23.2 °C in January and December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 4.2 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, July, 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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 62% 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 or lithophyte”. 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, southern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 15 °C in Jun and Jul to 23 °C in Jan, Feb and Dec; mean nightly low from 4 °C in Jul to 15 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low. 866 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 172 habitat cells. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 23 / 13–29 | 23 / 13–28 | 22 / 13–26 | 19 / 13–23 | 17 / 13–20 | 15 / 12–19 | 15 / 11–19 | 17 / 13–21 | 18 / 14–22 | 21 / 15–25 | 22 / 15–27 | 23 / 14–29 |
| Night °C | 15 / 6–19 | 14 / 5–18 | 13 / 5–17 | 10 / 4–14 | 7 / 2–11 | 5 / 1–9 | 4 / 0–7 | 5 / 1–9 | 7 / 2–10 | 10 / 3–14 | 12 / 5–16 | 14 / 5–19 |
| Rain mm | 160 / 99–253 | 139 / 89–209 | 127 / 67–194 | 61 / 21–93 | 22 / 6–41 | 8 / 3–25 | 12 / 4–25 | 11 / 5–31 | 31 / 7–53 | 63 / 14–92 | 93 / 27–148 | 139 / 59–201 |
| DLI | 43 / 37–47 | 39 / 35–44 | 32 / 29–41 | 27 / 23–38 | 22 / 19–35 | 21 / 17–34 | 23 / 19–35 | 29 / 25–39 | 34 / 31–44 | 39 / 37–49 | 43 / 39–50 | 44 / 38–50 |
| RH % | 61 / 55–68 | 62 / 56–68 | 62 / 58–68 | 61 / 55–67 | 59 / 49–65 | 58 / 44–62 | 56 / 44–60 | 55 / 47–59 | 54 / 49–61 | 55 / 51–62 | 56 / 52–64 | 58 / 54–65 |
The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1032 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 -5.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.8 °C.
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Lucas Carbone, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Caiophora lateritia Brick-Red Caiophora Photo: CC BY, Facundo Chieffo Collaea argentina Fabaceae 
Puya spathacea Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, cactusauria
Gymnocalycium erinaceum Cactaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Colletia spinosissima Rosea Photo: CC BY, Andrés Romero Bravo
Chaetogastra paratropica Melastomataceae Photo: CC BY, Ezequiel VeraOther Tillandsia 199 in the reference
Tillandsia achyrostachys Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Arturo Castro Castro
Tillandsia aeranthos Bromeliaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Tillandsia aizoides Bromeliaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Tillandsia albertiana Bromeliaceae Photo: Public domain, Dave Pape
Tillandsia albida Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, José Belem Hernández Díaz
Tillandsia andicola Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Benjamin Bender
Tillandsia andreana Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Laurimar Sepulveda
Tillandsia araujei Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, fmunoz
Tillandsia arequitae Bromeliaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Tillandsia argentea Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, J. L. Gómez-Hechavarría
Tillandsia argentina Bromeliaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated all 200 ›Names & registers
Also known as Diaphoranthema capillaris; Tillandsia capillaris f. capillaris; Tillandsia capillaris f. hieronymi; Tillandsia capillaris f. incana; Tillandsia capillaris f. typica and 11 more. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 15 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (9 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium, 3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -24.00_-65.625, lapse-corrected -1032 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1032 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 shownwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 31 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.