Tillandsia oerstediana

Native from Costa Rica through Panama to northwestern South America, Tillandsia oerstediana is an epiphytic bromeliad of humid tropical and montane forest. A broad rosette of arching leaves supports an upright, repeatedly branched inflorescence. Flattened yellow-green spikes carry overlapping bracts from which small tubular flowers emerge. The plant grows attached to branches in moist forest canopies. Photographed in Panama.