Bulbous Airplant

Tillandsia bulbosa Hook. Exot. Fl. pi. 173. 1826
Tillandsia bulbosa var. brasiliensis Schultes. in R. & S. Syst. Veg. 7: 1212. 1830.
Tillandsia bulbosa var. picla Hook. Bot. Mag. pi. 4Z8S. 1847.
Pourretia Hanisiana Morren, Ann. Soc. Agr. Bot. Gand 3: 255, as synonym. 1847.
Tillandsia inanis Lindl. & Paxt. Fl. Gard. 1: 159. 1850.
Tillandsia erythraea Lindl. & Paxt. Fl. Gard. 1: 160. 1850.
Tillandsia pumila Lindl. & Paxt. Fl. Gard. 1: 160. 1850.
Plalyslachys inanis Beer, Bromel. 82. 1857.
Plalyslachys bulbosa Beer, Bromel. 83. 1857.
Plalyslachys erythraea Beer, Bromel. 83. 1857.
Plants stemless, usually densely aggregated, 7-22 cm. high ; leaves 8-15, often exceeding the inflorescence, covered with fine, closely appressed, cinereous scales; sheaths orbicular, abruptly contracted into the blades, greatly inflated, 2-5 cm. long, forming a dense ovoid pseudobulb, green or greenish-white, often with a narrow red or purple marginal band; blades involutesubulate, acuminate, contorted, spreading and at least the outer ones making a sharp angle with the apex of the sheath, up to 3 dm. long, 2-7 mm. in diameter; scape erect; scape-bracts foliaceous in form with elongate blades exceeding the inflorescence, the upper ones often red ; inflorescence simple or subdigitate from a few spikes, red or green; primary bracts ovate, acute, much shorter than the axillary spikes but their foliaceous blades sometimes exceeding them; spikes spreading, lanceolate, acute, complanate, 2-5 cm. long, 2-8-flowered; rhachis slender, lepidotc; floral bracts erect, imbricate, ovate, acute, 15 mm. long, exceeding the sepals, two to three times as long as the internodes, subchartaceous, densely and finely apprcsscd-lcpidotc, carinate; flowers sessile; sepals oblong, apiculate, 13 mm. long, glabrous, more or less connate (Kisteriorly ; petals linear, acute, 3-4 cm. long, blue or violet ; stamens and pistil exsertcd ; capsule cylindric, up to 4 cm. long.
TvPR locality: Trinidad.
Ulstribution: Southern Mexico and Central America; West Indies; also in Trinidad, Colombia, eticzuela, Guiana, and Brazil.

Tillandsia bulbosa, the bulbous airplant, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Tillandsia. It is widespread across Central America, the West Indies, southern Mexico (Chiapas, Tabasco, Veracruz, Yucatán Peninsula), and northern and eastern South America (Venezuela, Colombia, the Guianas, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Alagoas, Amapá, Pernambuco).