Questions We’re Often Asked: Bromeliads

Many a houseplant has its day in the sun and, after a short time, vanishes from homes and conservatories of all but the most dedicated specialists. Recently, the florist section of supermarkets have been advertising bromeliads.

Although unfamiliar to most of North America, bromeliads flourish throughout subtropical and tropical Americas – and one outlying straggler from tropical West Africa. The pineapple family, or Bromeliaceae, is comprised of 51 genera and a staggering 2000 species – not including many hybrids. Technically they are epiphytes, plants that typically grow on trees and other supporting structures without being parasitic. A few, especially the ‘Earth Stars,’ or Cryptanthus, are lithophytic, anchoring themselves on rocks. One in particular is familiar to everybody, in the shape of the fruit known as the pineapple, from the Ananas comosus bromeliad of somewhat uncertain origin, probably originating in southwestern Brazil or neighbouring Paraguay. Miniature pineapple plants are sometimes available as novelties; unlike their larger cousins the fruit is inedible.

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Anyone who has travelled to the southeastern United States will be familiar with the ‘Spanish Moss’ adorning trees and, much to their distress, the power lines and telephone wires of utility companies. This is a species of another very weird group of Bromeliaceae, Tillandsia. Often peddled at fairs and garden shows as ‘air plants,’ where they are glued to pieces of driftwood, like all of their kind they do best if misted daily with water. The great taxonomist Linnaeus, who had a mischievous sense of humour, named the genera after a botanical acquaintance who was terrified of travelling across water. Some species of bromeliad are so large that their rosettes of leaves form small pools. In their natural habitats, these support frogs and other wildlife including, unfortunately, mosquitoes. Perhaps the most often seen ornamental offered for sale in is group is Aechmea fasciata, Silver Vase or Urn Plant, native to Brazil. Bromeliads tend to have very weak root systems, absorbing much of their water requirements through their foliage, hence will do best frequently spritzed with water. The rooting medium of their pots should be kept moist although never soggy. When the ‘flower,’ botanically speaking a collection of bracts as in the familiar poinsettia, dies the plant itself is doomed. Preceding this melancholy event, however, offshoots may appear at the base of the plant. These are known to bromeliad enthusiasts as ‘pups.’ In time these offshoots will form roots and so continue the species. Under home conditions though, such rarely happens and the long-flowering plants are usually sent to that great big green compost heap in sky following their demise. Meanwhile they make novel and attractive conversation pieces.