Tillandsia floribunda Large form

Many years ago I acquired my first specimen of this fine Tillandsia from Fred Fuchs, famed orchid collector and explorer, and never dreamed that I would ever see it growing wild. Years later our explorations took us to the arid scrub forests of western Ecuador and northern Peru where this plant was abundant, often in the crowns of towering Bombax trees. A beautiful species with rather thin, very dark gray, stiff, almost brittle leaves in a symmetrical open rosette that can reach 18 inches across. The inflorescence, a tall spike with a cluster of short branches, develops slowly, becoming vivid lacquer red and lasting in color for months.