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Tillandsia utriculata; photograph gwynmwilliams, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYgwynmwilliams, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Tillandsia utriculata L.

Spreading air plant; Wild pine; Giant Wild Pine; Old man's beard

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

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Tillandsia utriculata, photograph Melissa McMasters, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFTillandsia utriculata, photograph Claire Herzog, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFTillandsia utriculata, photograph Claire Herzog, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFTillandsia utriculata, photograph Tayton Alvis, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFTillandsia utriculata, photograph Alexis López Hernández, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFTillandsia utriculata, photograph jonsense, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
20.1°C
Record low 17.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep and Oct at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,447mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–42DLI
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 utriculata, commonly known as the spreading airplant, the giant airplant, or wild pine is a species of bromeliad that is native to Florida and Georgia in the United States, the Caribbean, southern and eastern Mexico (Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Oaxaca, the Yucatán Peninsula), Central America, and Venezuela.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Tillandsia utriculata", 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 (1,115 mm of 1,481 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 3.1 °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

1,481 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,115 mm of it May to November. Wettest month September at 187 mm, driest month February at 55 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,086 mm to 2,256 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,447 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,481 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 42 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 20.1 °C, the absolute minimum 17.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 22.3 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 15.7 °C to 24.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.2 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 65% 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. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +3 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. 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 utriculata through the yearWarmest months June, July, August, September and October, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 22.3 °C; 1,481 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°45°40.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER17.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 28–42RH 61–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 214 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C25 / 23–2725 / 23–2825 / 24–2926 / 25–2927 / 26–3028 / 27–3028 / 27–3128 / 27–3128 / 27–3028 / 26–2927 / 25–2826 / 23–27
Night °C22 / 15–2422 / 16–2422 / 17–2423 / 18–2524 / 20–2525 / 21–2625 / 21–2726 / 21–2726 / 21–2625 / 20–2624 / 18–2623 / 16–25
Rain mm71 / 40–13155 / 36–9060 / 35–10080 / 43–154126 / 87–238142 / 77–245141 / 76–246170 / 96–273187 / 130–277180 / 130–265169 / 66–242100 / 44–169
DLI30 / 24–3335 / 29–3740 / 35–4142 / 40–4342 / 40–4342 / 36–4342 / 36–4441 / 36–4238 / 32–3933 / 29–3530 / 25–3228 / 22–31
RH %61 / 58–6761 / 59–6661 / 58–6562 / 58–6663 / 60–6764 / 62–6964 / 62–6964 / 62–6964 / 63–7065 / 62–7063 / 59–6962 / 59–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 214 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (337 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 1673:2195 (6.325, -70.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.4 °C. 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 214 distinct grid cells holding 337 of the 339 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1673:2195 (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 6.50_-70.000, lapse-corrected +3 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 103 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 Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Venezuela · 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 marker27.298, -82.342 · in the densest population, 1086 records (59% of those in range)
Kew's description“epiphyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1844 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 337 of them in the land cells it reads, of 339 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 425 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 128 km away. 40 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 1505 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 of the 1844 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 utriculata, photograph 1did not loadTillandsia utriculata, photograph 2did not loadTillandsia utriculata, photograph 3did not loadTillandsia utriculata, photograph 4did not loadTillandsia utriculata, photograph 5did not loadTillandsia utriculata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Melissa McMasters, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Claire Herzog, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Tayton Alvis, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Alexis López Hernández, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; jonsense, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

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

Coccoloba swartzii Coccoloba swartzii Swartz's pigeonplum Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt MillerOplonia spinosa Oplonia spinosa Prickly Bush Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt MillerJatropha multifida Jatropha multifida Coralbush Photo: CC0, author not statedPhyllanthus epiphyllanthus Phyllanthus epiphyllanthus Swordbush Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt MillerErythrina corallodendron Erythrina corallodendron Coral erythrina Photo: CC BY, lienyuan leeCanella winterana Canella winterana Wild cinnamon Photo: CC0, author not stated

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 Allardtia potockii; Anoplophytum flexuosum var. pallidum; Platystachys ehrenbergiana; Platystachys ehrenbergii; Platystachys utriculata and 13 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Tillandsia bartramii Nutt. is an older name of this species, not Tillandsia bartramii, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

Registers not checked Wikidata did not answer when this page was built, so the links it gives (POWO, IPNI, World Flora Online, Wikipedia) were not checked; any shown here are kept from an earlier build. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
GBIFWikipedia

The record

Family
Bromeliaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Florida, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest +20
Wild records
1844 in range · 425 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; 35 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (33 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 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 6.50_-70.000, lapse-corrected +3 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata failedasked 2026-10-22query.wikidata.org 502 (batched: Wikidata's query service, 100 GBIF keys)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
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 51 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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