| 释义 |
‖ Tillandsia Bot.|tɪˈlændzɪə|
[mod.L. (Linnæus), named after Elias Tillands, a Swedish botanist.]
A large genus of herbaceous plants of the pine-apple family (Bromeliaceæ), found in tropical and subtropical America and the West Indies, chiefly epiphytic on trees.
T. usneoides, also called long-beard, long-moss, hanging moss, or Florida moss, forms long pendent grey tufts, the fibres of which are used for stuffing mattesses, etc.; other species, as T. utriculata, have the leaves dilated at the base so as to form a reservoir for water; many others are cultivated for ornament.
1759B. Stillingfl. tr. Biber's Econ. Nat. in Misc. Tracts (1762) 76 The tillandsia, which..grows on the tops of trees in the desarts of America, has its leaves turned at the base into the shape of a pitcher..; in these the rain is collected, and preserved for thirsty men, birds, and beasts. 1860Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 61 The tillandsias nestle at the ramification of the smaller branches,..where they often grow to an immense size. 1863Russell Diary North & South I. 220 The overlacing arms and intertwined branches of the tillandsia or Spanish moss, a weeping, drooping, plumaceous parasite, which..clings to the tree everlastingly. 1896Daily News 16 Mar. 6/5 A number of species of the so-called air plants—Tillandsias—exhibited. |