Bromeliads – Pineapples and Spanish Moss

Bromeliads are the family where we find pineapples (Bromeliaceae), and can be found in their native habitat of the New World or more commonly known as North, Central and South America. The two most widely known plants from the Bromeliad family are the popular pineapple (Ananas comosus) and the graceful “southern Bromeliad” known as Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides).

Most Bromeliads grown for indoor use as house plants are epiphytes. In their native home you’ll find them attached by their root to trunks and branches in trees and “catch” their nutrients and moisture from the air and rain – hence they are know as “air plants”.

Some do attach themselves to rocks, while other grow as most plants do – in the ground. Within the same genus or group you can often find tree-dwelling, ground-dwelling, and rock-dwelling species. If the truth be known most epiphytic and terrestrial Bromeliads can grow just as well in either place or condition. It is this characteristic and ability Bromeliads posses in particular, that allows many of the epiphytic Bromeliad species to be produced in pots, making them wonderful house plants.