Tillandsia flexuosaSw.

twisted airplant

WFO wfo-0000578510 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Tillandsia flexuosa, photographed by GERMAN LEONEL SARMIENTO CRUZ
fig. a GERMAN LEONEL SARMIENTO CRUZ, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-13 / obs. 188325757
Tillandsia flexuosa, photographed by Josiah Londerée
fig. b Josiah Londerée, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 180960740
Tillandsia flexuosa, photographed by Arthur Windsor
fig. c Arthur Windsor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 172755419
Tillandsia flexuosa, photographed by Guillaume Delaitre
fig. d Guillaume Delaitre, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 152362474
Tillandsia flexuosa, photographed by Luis Rubio-Yépez
fig. e Luis Rubio-Yépez, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154625844
Tillandsia flexuosa, photographed by greenline
fig. f greenline, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 164381784
Tillandsia flexuosa, photographed by Glynn Morris
fig. g Glynn Morris, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 1906184
Tillandsia flexuosa, photographed by Jody Shugart
fig. h Jody Shugart, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 183711585

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 22 botanical countries

Regions where Tillandsia flexuosa is native: Florida, Mexico Southeast, Aruba, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, Panamá, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Turks-Caicos Is., Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. FloridaMexico SoutheastColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicFrench GuianaGuyanaHaitiJamaicaPanamáPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela ArubaBahamasCayman Is.Netherlands AntillesTurks-Caicos Is.Venezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Tillandsia flexuosa, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Aruba ARU SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bahamas BAH
Cayman Is. CAY
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
French Guiana FRG
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Jamaica JAM
Netherlands Antilles NLA
Panamá PAN
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Turks-Caicos Is. TCI
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Windward Is. WIN
Florida FLA NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Southeast MXT

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.

Also published as 12 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.

  • Anoplophytum flexuosum Lindl.
  • Anoplophytum flexuosum (Sw.) Beer
  • Platystachys aloifolia (Hook.) K.Koch
  • Platystachys patens (Willd. ex Schult. & Schult.f.) K.Koch
  • Tillandsia aloifolia Hook.
  • Tillandsia flexuosa f. alba Takiz.
  • Tillandsia flexuosa var. fasciata Lindl.
  • Tillandsia flexuosa var. vivipara André
  • Tillandsia patens Willd. ex Schult. & Schult.f.
  • Vriesea aloefolia Beer
  • Vriesea aloifolia (Hook.) Beer
  • Vriesea tenuifolia Beer

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.