Tillandsias, or Tillies as I like to call them, have two methods of reproduction. One is the usual method, with flowers and seeds (apomictic or not, I do not know!). Here you see a Tillandsia juncea, a large (30-40cm) Florida native, in the seed-throwing phase of its life:
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| Tillandsia juncea with seed pods, MR 2013 |
T. juncea's flowering phase lasts a long time. The inflorescence takes several months to grow and the blooms last for several weeks in early summer (for Zone 9b). The seeds take several months to ripen, then the pods burst in fall and the seeds fly everywhere. You can see one flying away in the upper right corner of the photograph.
But Tillies also reproduce asexually, by pupping, or offsetting. Pups can grow from almost anywhere on the mother plant. For T. juncea and T. ionantha (a petite Central American Tillie), multiple pups grow from the base. They can stay attached to the mother plant more or less permanently, or drop off and grow in a new spot. Here you can see a T. juncea with pups (right) and T. ionantha (left), with pups growing from the base of the mother plant:
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| Tillandsias with Pups Growing From the Base of the Mother Plants, MR 2013 |
There are many other styles of offsets, which I'll be sharing over the course of time....
