Air Plant is a fleshy, perennial plant, about 1 m tall, with
fleshy cylindrical stems and young growth of a reddish tinge.
Leaves are thick, fleshy, elliptical, curved, with a rounded
toothed or sawtoothed margin, often reddish. Simple at the base of
the stem, the leaves are compound at the top, 10-30 cm
long, with three to five pairs of fleshy limb lobes. The leaves
are remarkable in that at their margin,
between the teeth, adventitious buds appear, which produce roots, stems
and leaves. When the plantlets fall to the ground, they root and can
become new plants. The flower-cluster at the top is a panicle,
with many hanging, red-orange flowers. The sepal-cup is formed of
a long tube, red at the base, veined with yellowish green (or green
spotted with reddish brown), with four very small triangular lobes at
the end. The tubular flower, with a pronounced constriction separating
the subspherical part of the ovoid part, is terminated by four lobes
which reaches 5 cm. It is yellowish in color with
red-purple streaks. Eight stamens are about 4 cm long. Air Plant is
native to Madagascar, now naturalized in the Tropical World.
Medicinal uses: Bahamians call it Life Leaf or Ploppers. In the Bahamas it is mostly used for
Asthma or shortness in breath.
Identification credit: N Arun Kumar
Photographed in cultivation.
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The flower labeled Air Plant is ...