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Billbergia pallidiflora - An epiphytic plant that grows to 12 to 18 inches tall with a cluster of upright rosettes of a few stiff green leaves that have broad gray-white horizontal banding and evenly spaced small sharp teeth along the margins. In flower in spring this plant has long broad pale pink bracts and long pale green and violet flowers.
Plant in part sun or bright shade in a pot or as an epiphyte in a tree crotch and irrigate occasionally. Seems to be fairly hardy and at least able to tolerate a couple degrees below freezing for short durations. An attracive container plant
The genus Billbergia is a large genus that ranges from South America north into Mexico with majority of species in Brasil. Billbergia pallidiflora is a species native to Central America from Nicaragua north through Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala up into western Mexico as far north as Sinaloa. It is the most northerly growing of the genus and one of the two species of Billbergia found in Mexico, with other species B. viridiflora recorded only from the southern state of Tabasco south to Guatemala. At one time there were considered to be four Mexican species but Billbergia chiapensis, B. mexicana and B. oaxacana have all been synonymized with B. pallidiflora. These plants are well camouflaged plant and found growing fairly high up in trees in tropical deciduous or semi deciduous forest or oak forest, lowlands and foothills along the Pacific slope from sea-level up to around 4,500 feet. The name of the genus honors the Swedish Gustaf (Gustave) Johan Billberg (1772-1844) who was a lawyer by profession and a self-trained botanist, zoologist, and anatomist and authored the Flora of Sweden. The specific epithet is from the Latin words Latin 'pallide' meaning "pale" and 'flora' meaning 'flower' in reference to the pale colored light pink flowers it has compared other more showy Billbergias with flowers of brighter colors. We received a plant with developing fruit from John Bleck in 2019 tagged Billbergia oaxacana and our crop is from seed we collected from this plant in August 2020.
The information about Billbergia pallidiflora displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant. |
