tillandsia

American  

[ti-land-zee-uh] / tɪˈlænd zi ə /

noun

1. any of numerous, chiefly epiphytic bromeliads of the genus Tillandsia, including Spanish moss and many species cultivated as ornamentals.

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tillandsia British  

/ tɪˈlændzɪə /

noun

1. any bromeliaceous epiphytic plant of the genus Tillandsia, such as Spanish moss, of tropical and subtropical America

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Etymology

Origin of tillandsia

< New Latin (Linnaeus), after Elias Tillands, 17th-century Finno-Swedish botanist; see -ia

Example Sentences

The outfits are made of colorful living material, including headdresses of tillandsia, or air plants, and tresses of huperzia, a tropical clubmoss.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 21, 2024

When houseplant sales took off — many of them ready to go in pots — they added houseplants, succulents, tillandsia, as well as gifts and their own line of candles.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 19, 2019

That led to a staghorn fern he found at Grow in Venice, a trendy fiddle leaf fig from Home Depot, multiple air plants known as tillandsia and 20 other species.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 24, 2018

A bust of Michelangelo’s David sports a full head of green moss and a lei of tillandsia, all of which grew on the figure naturally.

From Washington Times • Feb. 7, 2015

Above and around waved the dark solemn cypress-trees, fit emblems of grief—rendered doubly lugubrious in their expression by the hoary tillandsia, that draped them like a couch of the dead.

From The Quadroon Adventures in the Far West by Reid, Mayne