Visit any garden center now and you will find a wide selection of air plants for sale. Almost every home décor store today includes these low-maintenance plants that have interesting and beautiful design features.
These tropical plants have even found their way into wedding bouquets and fresh flower arrangements. Air plants are simply the darlings of indoor plant growing today, especially for those who lack the requisite green thumb or detest the soil mess in the home.
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But what are air plants? Air plants belong to the genus Tillandsia and are members of the pineapple family (Bromeliaceae), which includes pineapples, Spanish mosses, orchids, and a group of colorful flowering tropical plants commonly called bromeliads. These types of plants are some of the best houseplants for removing pollution from the air. There are more than 500 species of air plants with a variety of leaf colors, textures, and flowers.
In nature, Tillandsia species are epiphytes, meaning they attach to plants or other surfaces for support without parasitizing the host plant. The roots of these plants serve only as a means of physical support and attachment, not as a mechanism for absorbing nutrients or moisture. Air plants depend on atmospheric moisture and have specialized, scale-like structures called trichomes on their leaves to trap moisture and dust, and provide the plant with nutrients and water.
Air plants require little care
Air plants can forgive indoor plants if they are provided with adequate amounts of light and water. These plants prefer bright, indirect light provided by windows facing east or west. The indoor environment of most homes with limited amounts of direct sunlight appears to mimic the existing lighting conditions as these plants grow naturally under the canopy of large tropical plants and in rock spurs and crevices.
Moisture can be provided to aerate plants by spraying, rinsing or soaking. A simple way to provide adequate moisture is to rinse these plants weekly under the kitchen tap with lukewarm water and then place them on a paper towel to dry. If you keep air plants in a glass container or terrarium, be sure to let them dry completely after rinsing them before returning them to the container. Good air circulation is important to the health of air plants.
Air plants will benefit from applying a compound fertilizer for use on bromeliads every two months. Simply rinse the leaves of air plants with a diluted solution of liquid bromeliad fertilizer.
Air plants bloom but once in a lifetime
Air plants bloom only once during their lifetime. Their flowers come in a large variety of shapes and colors ranging from white and yellow to pink, red and purple. After air plants bloom, they produce new plants called pups, which emerge from the base of the mother plant. Once these pups are about a third the size of the mother plant, they can be removed and grown as a separate plant. The pups can also remain attached to the mother plant and will form a clump as the mother plant dies.
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Include air plants in the deck
Since air plants do not require soil, there are endless options for incorporating these plants into any type of interior. Popular decoration techniques include hanging on the walls, suspended from the ceiling, or combined with other design elements or combinations.
It is common to incorporate these plants into displays that contain organic elements such as driftwood, seashells, rocks, tree bark, or other plant material. Air plants can also add an interesting touch to grapevine wreaths and dried flower arrangements.
All without a speck of soil to clean up!
Mike Hogan is an associate professor at Ohio State University and an instructor at OSU Extension.
