You can grow air plants from seeds or pups, which is often easier. However, growing air plants from seeds can result in stronger plants and also be an interesting experience. If you want to get seeds on your air plant, you will need to pollinate it. In this post, you will learn how to pollinate air plants in order to get seeds.
In order to pollinate air plants, you would need to transfer pollen from male part of the flower (stamen) to a female part of the flower, called stigma (part of a pistil). However, not all air plants can self-pollinate.
Air plant reproduction
Air plants reproduce in two ways – by producing seeds and forming small pups on the sides of the parent plant. It often takes a few years for a pup (even more if growing from seed, around 6-10 years) to reach reproductive maturity. At this stage, your air plant will bloom, once in its lifetime.
After your air plant has bloomed, it will start producing pups, also called offsets (1-4 in general, but up to 10 over time). You can separate pups once they reach at least 1/2 size of the parent plant.
But if you also want to get seeds from your air plant, you will need to pollinate it. After pollination, your air plants will produce seed pods, which will contain seeds.
If you don’t pollinate the flower, your air plant will only produce pups. After that, the flower will wither (within few weeks, however some flowers up to a year or so) and your parent air plant will start declining. If you don’t separate pups, they will form a clump.
Many tillandsias bloom during drier periods of the year, then developing seeds. The seeds are then released from seed pods that burst, and land on cliffs and branches, where they have a high chance of germination. This happens before a rainy season, and it avoids the situation when seeds are washed away by rain.
Pollinating air plants
If you wish to produce seeds from your air plants that are blooming, you are heading in the right direction. Because air plants only flower once and most flowers last only up to few weeks, you need to act quickly. So if your tillandsia has already bloomed or is currently blooming, you can prepare for its pollination.
Blooms of air plants are called inflorescence. It consists of bract (modified leaf from which flower emerges and which contains the reproductive structure), stem, stalk and the main blossom.
Most air plants are able to self-pollinate, but some will not. However, you can still try to self-pollinate your plant and see if it produces any seed pods.
After you pollinate your air plants, you will need to wait. If pollination was successful, after the flower withers, you will notice the darkening in that spot, and seed pods forming. Seeds pods will be elongated and enclosed and contain the seeds.
Once seeds are ready to come out, pods will burst, releasing seeds with fluffy hairs (called parachute or coma). They resemble dandelion seeds.
This helps them be easily transported by wind in nature. It generally takes few months, but up to 10-12 months, for the seed pod inside to open up, releasing seeds that are ready to be germinated. Once seeds pods burst, you can collect the seeds and germinate them.
Cross-pollinating air plants
If you have two types of air plants and want to try to cross-pollinate them to create a hybrid, you can also try this. This is called selective breeding. There are many known air plant hybrids, so if you have two wild types, you can attempt your own cross-pollination.
However, also keeping original species is the best idea. Crossing can also result in very beautiful hybrids, especially when you cross two air plants with beautiful colors and other interesting traits.
To do this, you will need to take pollen from one air plant and transfer it to another air plant’s female reproductive part called stigma. There are many known hybrids that have resulted from crossing two types of tillandsias – that you can might try to do yourself.
Some of the examples of beautiful air plant hybrids include:
- Tillandsia stricta x T. paucifolia
- T. usneoides x Tillandsia recurvata (famous T. Kimberly)
- Tillandsia arhiza-juliae x T. pruinosa
- Tillandsia stricta x Tillandsia recurvifolia (famous T. Houston)
- T. Streptophylla x T. Concolor (famous T. Redy)
- T. brachycaulos x T. streptophylla (called T. Eric Knobloch
- T. Houston Cotton Candy – Tillandsia Stricta x Tillandsia Recurvifolia
How to pollinate air plants?
Make sure to keep an eye on your plant’s blooming process. That’s because air plants’ flowers don’t last long, and you need to start the process as soon as possible. Once your air plant’s flower has opened, you can pollinate it.
To pollinate your air plant, take a small soft bristle brush or a q-tip and rub the pollen from stamen (male part) and rub it on top part, which will be a female stalk.
You can rub it on the same flower’s part, to help self-pollinate. Or to cross-pollinate, take pollen from one flower and rub it on other air plant’s female stalk. Make sure to write down what you have done, or you will forget which plants you have pollinated (or cross-pollinated).
Collecting air plant seeds after pollination
Once you pollinate your air plant, you will have to wait often 2-3 months, but sometimes up to 10 months for seed pods to mature and open up/burst.
Pods will be long and elongated, usually brown in color. You can then see the seeds being released. You can pick them with tweezers and can germinate straight away (read about that in this post).
A good tip not to lose any seeds is to wrap your air plant’s pods with a thin gauze or cheesecloth. Air plant seeds are designed to fly (like parachutes) easily to increase chances of germination.
Even if you check on your air plants often, one of the pods might open up and seeds might fly away. Wrapping them in a thin filter cloth will help to keep seeds inside.
If you wish, you can share the seeds with friends and family, as one plant will produce a lot of them. You can also store seeds in a fridge for 1-2 months, but then you will have to germinate them, or they will expire. Sow air plants seeds within a week of collection, while they are viable.
If you wish to learn how to grow air plants from collected or purchased seeds, please read this post.