Aechmea tillandsioides(Mart. ex Schult. & Schult.f.) Baker

WFO wfo-0000337971 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Aechmea tillandsioides, photographed by Francisco Emilio Roldán Velasco
fig. a Francisco Emilio Roldán Velasco, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-04-15 / obs. 121910907
Aechmea tillandsioides, photographed by Daniel Pineda Vera
fig. b Daniel Pineda Vera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 120031525
Aechmea tillandsioides, photographed by Aitor
fig. c Aitor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 77327066
Aechmea tillandsioides, photographed by Arthur de Jesús Chavarría Pérez
fig. d Arthur de Jesús Chavarría Pérez, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 63872676
Aechmea tillandsioides, photographed by Francisco Emilio Roldán Velasco
fig. e Francisco Emilio Roldán Velasco, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 60623572
Aechmea tillandsioides, photographed by Letizia Weichgrebe
fig. f Letizia Weichgrebe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 51133881
Aechmea tillandsioides, photographed by carnifex
fig. g carnifex, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 32345774
Aechmea tillandsioides, photographed by Tom and T Herman
fig. h Tom and T Herman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 60668636

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 17 botanical countries

Regions where Aechmea tillandsioides is native: Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela Mexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorGuatemalaGuyanaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáPeruSurinameVenezuela
Native distribution of Aechmea tillandsioides, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Honduras HON
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Suriname SUR
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Gulf MXG NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 164 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 14.6 °C 19.8 °C 23.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.5 °C 29.7 °C 33.1 °C
Annual rainfall 1,332 mm 2,641 mm 4,957 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 90 mm 196 mm 699 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 164 research-grade observations of Aechmea tillandsioides that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 16 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Aechmea chiriquensis Baker
  • Aechmea kienastii É.Morren ex Mez
  • Aechmea squarrosa Baker
  • Aechmea tillandsioides var. kienastii (É.Morren ex Mez) L.B.Sm.
  • Aechmea tillandsioides var. tillandsioides
  • Aechmea vrieseoides Baker
  • Aechmea vriesioides Baker
  • Aechmea xiphophylla Baker
  • Billbergia gracilis Poepp. ex Beer
  • Billbergia tillandsioides Mart. ex Schult. & Schult.f.
  • Ortgiesia tillandsioides (Mart. ex Schult. & Schult.f.) Regel
  • Ortgiesia tillandsioides var. nidulans Regel
  • Platyaechmea tillandsioides (Mart. ex Schult. & Schult.f.) L.B.Sm. & W.J.Kress
  • Platyaechmea tillandsioides var. kienastii (É.Morren ex Mez) L.B.Sm. & W.J.Kress
  • Platystachys gracilis Beer
  • Portea tillandsioides (Mart. ex Schult. & Schult.f.) G.Nicholson

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.