bromeliad

Any tropical or subtropical plant belonging to the pineapple family, usually with stiff leathery leaves, which are often coloured and patterned, and bright, attractive flower spikes. There are about 1,400 species in tropical America; several are cultivated as greenhouse plants. (Family Bromeliaceae.)

Some grow in habitats ranging from scrub desert to tropical forest floor. Many, however, grow on rainforest trees. These are epiphytes: they are supported by the tree but do not take nourishment from it, using rain and decayed plant and animal remains for independent sustenance.

The pineapple plant (Ananas comosus) is widely cultivated for its fleshy collective fruit, resembling a pine cone, developed from a flower spike. Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides), another bromeliad, grows in long strands from the branches of trees in the southeastern US and tropical America.