If you’ve always assumed that plants need soil to survive, you’re in for a treat. Tillandsia, also commonly known as an air plant, thrives without a lick of soil. Air plants are epiphytes, meaning that they stick to a host for survival instead of living in soil. They can grow on just about anything—streets, rock walls, man-made structures like telephone poles. You name it!
These charming plants are native to mountains, forests and deserts of southeastern United States, the Caribbean, northern Mexico, Mesoamerica and parts of Argentina. They’re southern bells in the U.S. growing in California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.
So if they don’t grow in soil, how do they get nutrients? The answer lies in something we’re all quite familiar with. H2Go. Tillandsia pull water out of the air, which makes it seem like they live on it, hence the common name, air plant. Specifically, little scales on their leaves called trichomes act as reservoirs that grab water and nutrients from the air.
Air plants love water. Once a week you should give them a soak in a water-filled container for 5 to 10 minutes. When you’re done, turn them
upside down and gently shake excess water off. Also, fun fact time. These plants like dirty cocktails too. Some of their favorites include water from lakes, ponds, rain barrels and even bird baths. One thing they will not enjoy is distilled water. Not one bit. Leave your tap water out overnight so that the chlorine will dissipate. Also, if the plant is blooming, rinse it under running water instead of soaking. Once you’ve given them a bath, you’ll notice the leaves are more stiff while also softer, lighter in color and full of water (duh). If you really want to be the ultimate plant parent, you could mist the plant 2-3 times a week to increase humidity. Wrinkled or rolled leaves are an easy sign that your air plant is thirsty.
As you may have guessed, these plants are incredibly easy to take care of. Make sure you place them in a spot with ample indirect sunlight, so a few feet away from a sunny window or on a porch with a dash of shade. Try to ensure good air circulation and avoid temperature extremes. These are tropical plants, so they typically thrive in temperatures that are in the 80s. When it’s a scorching hot day or chilly outside, bring the little guys inside.
While there are over 600 varieties of air plants, they are threatened by humans. No surprise there, really. Like many of Mother Nature’s gems, human’s latest trends have left many different species endangered thanks to habitat destruction and over-collecting for the horticultural trade. Thankfully some work has been done to address this. Now exporters must prove that their air plants were nursery grown rather than harvested from the wild, so make sure to check when you buy an air plant!
5 Top Hits
1. Hail from Cloud Forests
Mesic air plants can from shady moist places like rain and cloud forests. Their trichomes are less pronounced, which makes them smoother and subsequently, in need of more water! Also, let’s just take a moment to talk about cloud forests.
2. Cloud Forests?! Can you believe that actually exists?
Cloud forests, also called a primas and water forest. These typically tropical or subtropical, montane and evergreen forests have the lovely characterization of persistent, or frequent low-level cloud cover. These clouds usually float along at the canopy level. All of this moisture creates a mystic world with an abundance of mosses covering trees, branches and the ground. These mossy forests develop on the saddles of mountains because the moisture from the low-hanging clouds retains best there.
3. They have pups!
Air plants offsets are called pups—talk about a litter! You can remove the smaller, new plants and treat them as new air plants.
4. They’re air-purifying warriors
NASA research has long examined how houseplants clear the air of toxins. A study in Brazil specifically looked at how well Tillandsias clean the air of heavy metals, and they found extreme results. Paulo Machado Torress, a senior scientist at the Radioisotopes Laboratory of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro said, “We have used plants of the bromeliad family and Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) as sentinel species to detect and absorb mercury from the air in shops contaminated by the gold trade in the Amazon.” Plus, using plants is uniquely useful when other types of remediation are impractical or difficult to deploy.
5. Fuzzy friends and freaky names
Fuzzy air plants with silvery or dusty surfaces are xertic types that hail from dry climates without much rain. These guys have more pronounced trichomes, so they can collect water and store if for dry spells. If you’ve got one of these, they enjoy direct sunlight and need less watering.
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