the.com/tillandsia
The plant that ditched dirt entirely and never looked back.
means A genus of air plants that draw water and nutrients straight from the air through their leaves, needing no soil to grow.
from Named by Linnaeus after Elias Tillandz, a 17th-century Swedish-Finnish physician and botanist — and the story has a wink to it: Tillandz was said to have gotten so seasick on a boat trip that he insisted on traveling home by a long overland route instead, avoiding water altogether. Linnaeus, naming this water-shunning, soil-free plant genus after him, may well have been making a botanical joke at his colleague's expense.
- no soil needed
- roots exist only to grip, not feed
- drinks through leaves
- tiny scales called trichomes absorb water from air
- air plant nickname
- commonly sold as decor, technically an epiphyte
- blooms once
- flowers spectacularly, then the mother plant dies