MainDescriptionSynonymsReferencesPlate
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<- genus Tillandsia L.
(tribus Tillandsieae)

Publ: Species plantarum, ed. 1 286 (1753)

Type: Tillandsia utriculata L. Sp. Pl. 286. 1753

Number of species: 791
   and 151 infraspecific taxa

Taxa included

  1. Aerobia Mez
  2. Anoplophytum (Beer) Baker
  3. Diaphoranthema (Beer) Baker
  4. Phytarrhiza (Visiani) Baker
  5. Pseudovriesea Barfuss & W.Till
  6. Tillandsia
  7. Viridantha (Espejo) W.Till & Barfuss

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Genus Notes:

Sp. pl.: 286. 1 Mai 1753.
Lecto Type Tillandsia utriculata L., Sp. pl.: 286. 1 Mai 1753, designated by Britton & Millspaugh (in Bahama fl. 64. 26 Jun 1920). Currently recognized in the subfam. Tillandsioideae. The genus sensu Smith & Downs (1977) comprises several distinct generic entities, and is in need of a careful revision. In ‘Species plantarum’ (1753), Linnaeus named four species of Tillandsia: T. lingulata (== Guzmania lingulata), T. serrata (== Aechmea serrata), T. tenuifolia, and T. utriculata. Named in honor of Swedish physician and botanist Elias Erici Tillandz (originally Tillander) (1640-1693), a professor in Åbo (Turku) Finland and Uppsala, Sweden. His surname derives from the Swedish ‘till-lands’ [by land, or on land]. Fernald (in Gray’s Manual of Botany, Ed. 8: 391. 1950) notes that Tillandz: “...as a student crossing directly from Stockholm [to Turku], was so seasick that he returned to Stockholm by walking more than 1,000 miles around the Gulf of Bothnia [the gulf between Finland and Sweden] and hence assumed his surname (by land).” Linnaeus named the genus after Tillandz, because he thought that it too did not like water.
(from Grant & Zijlstra 1998)