Tillandsia argentea Griseb.

Tillandsia argentea Griseb. Cat. PI. Cub. 254. 1866
Plant 25 cm. high; stem curved, very short but often branched; leaves many in a dense rosette, spreading, 6-9 cm. long, densely whiteor ferruginous-lepidote with apprcssed to slightly spreading scales; sheaths subtriangular, small, scarcely distinct from the blade; blades linear-subulate, filiform-acuminate, rigid, 2 mm. wide at base; scape erect or ascending, exceeding the leaves, 1 mm. in diameter, glabrous; scape-bracts erect, partially clasping the scape, exceeding the internodes or the uppermost sometimes slightly shorter, ovate, abruptly acute or caudate, 8 mm. long without the caudate apex, chartaceous, prominently nerved, at least the lowest densely appressed-lepidote; inflorescence simple, 7 cm. long, laxly up to 6-flowercd with the rudiment of seventh at the apex; rhachis geniculate, slender, angled, glabrous; floral bracts subspreading, equaling or shorter than the internodes, broadly elliptic, acute or apiculatc, 1 1 mm. long, much shorter than the sepals, membranaceous, densely appressed-lepidote; flowers subspreading; pedicels distinct, stout, 2-5 mm. long; sepals elliptic, obtuse, 14 nun. long, 5 mm. wide, submembranaceous, prominently nerved, appressed-lepidote, becoming glabrous with age, free; petals ligulate, obtuse, 3 cm. long, bright-red; stamens exserted, .shorter than the pistil; capsule 4-5 cm. long, slender, acute.
TvpK locality: Near Montcvcrdc, eastern Cuba. Distribution: Sinaloa and Oaxaca; Cuba and Jamaica.

Tillandsia argentea, called the silver-leaved air plant, is a species of flowering plant in the bromeliad genus Tillandsia, native to Cuba and Jamaica. An evergreen perennial epiphyte, it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit as a houseplant.