Species
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Guzmania lingulata (L.) Mez

Droophead Tufted Airplant, Scarlet-star, Zannana bwa, Zannana mawon

Climate known 49 photographs Other epiphyte
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Guzmania lingulata, the droophead tufted airplant or scarlet star, is a species of flowering plant in the family Bromeliaceae, subfamily Tillandsioideae. This evergreen epiphytic perennial is native to rainforest habitats in Central America, northern and central South America and southern Mexico. The Latin word lingulata means "tongue-shaped". The foliage grows in a star-shaped basal rosette culminating in an orange and red bracted inflorescence. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Guzmania lingulata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Guzmania

Guzmania is a genus of over 120 species of flowering plants in the botanical family Bromeliaceae, subfamily Tillandsioideae. They are mainly stemless, evergreen, epiphytic perennials native to Brazil, southern Mexico, Central America, and northern and western South America. They are found at altitudes of up to 3,500 m (11,483 ft) in the Andean rainforests.

Text from Wikipedia, “Guzmania”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Bromeliaceae
Described by
(L.) Mez
Native to
Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica +24
Wild records
1061 in range· 675 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Mar, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2674mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 325 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–33DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Guzmania, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 2674 mm a year, wettest May at 325 mm, driest February at 156 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 19.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Caraguata lingulata (L.) Lindl.; Tillandsia clavata D.Dietr.; Tillandsia lingulata L.

Cultivation

Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Guzmania, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November at the habitat (not shifted)).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1986 mm of 2674 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 0.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2674 mm a year, wettest May at 325 mm, driest February at 156 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2674 mm a year at the habitat, 1986 mm of it April to November. Wettest month May at 325 mm, driest February at 156 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1565 mm to 4523 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 33 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 19.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 19.8 °C, the absolute minimum 17.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 21.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 17.0 °C to 23.5 °C), warmest day 28.1 °C in March (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a other epiphyte, 10 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 67 to 70% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 27 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Mar; mean night from 21 °C in Jul to 22 °C in Apr. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 2674 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 760 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 17.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.15°20°25°30°35°40°36.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)17.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 27–33RH 67–70 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 760 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 24–2928 / 24–2928 / 24–3028 / 25–3028 / 25–2927 / 24–2927 / 24–2928 / 24–3028 / 24–3228 / 24–3227 / 24–3127 / 24–30
Night °C21 / 17–2321 / 17–2422 / 17–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 17–2421 / 17–2421 / 17–2422 / 17–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 17–23
Rain mm159 / 59–383156 / 46–338179 / 45–351238 / 81–449325 / 127–534297 / 104–477240 / 87–470215 / 78–476226 / 53–473239 / 59–511206 / 76–464194 / 93–387
DLI30 / 24–3531 / 26–3733 / 27–3930 / 25–4028 / 23–3727 / 22–3629 / 23–3832 / 24–3833 / 24–3932 / 23–3930 / 23–3529 / 23–33
RH %68 / 63–7367 / 62–7267 / 61–7268 / 63–7370 / 65–7470 / 65–7569 / 63–7569 / 62–7569 / 61–7569 / 61–7569 / 63–7569 / 64–74

Each figure is the median across the 760 grid cells holding the 1017 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1657:2104 (7.125, -74.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 760 distinct grid cells holding the 1017 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1657:2104 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 7.00_-75.000, lapse-corrected -517 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 450 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil North· introduced: Bermuda
Kew's description“perennial or epiphyte” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker6.223, -75.011 · in the densest population, 358 records (34% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1061 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 675 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1014 km away. 11 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 44 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1061 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Guzmania lingulataGuzmania lingulataGuzmania lingulataGuzmania lingulataGuzmania lingulataGuzmania lingulataGuzmania lingulataGuzmania lingulata

Photographs: (c) Yves Bas, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Letizia Weichgrebe, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) avocat, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Anders Hastings, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Guzmania lingulata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Comparative ecophysiology of CAM and C3 bromeliads. III. Environmental influences on CO2 assimilation and transpiration
Howard Griffiths, Ulrich Lüttge, K.‐H. STIMMEL, C. E. CROOK (1986) · Plant Cell & Environment
Leaf Hydraulic Conductance for a Tank Bromeliad: Axial and Radial Pathways for Moving and Conserving Water
Gretchen B. North, Frank H. Lynch, Franklin D. R. Maharaj, Carly Phillips (2013) · Frontiers in Plant Science
Floristic composition and community structure of epiphytic angiosperms in a terra firme forest in central Amazonia
Mariana Victória Irume, Maria de Lourdes da Costa Soares Morais, Charles E. Zartman, Iêda Leão do Amaral (2013) · Acta Botanica Brasilica
Consumer Response to Novel Indoor Foliage Plant Attributes: Evidence from a Conjoint Experiment and Gaze Analysis
Alicia Rihn, Hayk Khachatryan, Benjamin L. Campbell, Charles R. Hall (2015) · HortScience
Juvenile tank-bromeliads lacking tanks: do they engage in CAM photosynthesis?
Juan D. Beltrán, Eloisa Lasso, Santiago Madriñán, Aurelio Virgo (2012) · Photosynthetica
A tale of two plasticities: leaf hydraulic conductances and related traits diverge for two tropical epiphytes from contrasting light environments
Gretchen B. North, Marvin Browne, Kyle Fukui, Franklin D. R. Maharaj (2015) · Plant Cell & Environment
Nitrogen efficiency indexes for evaluating nitrogen uptake and use in ornamental bromeliad’s root system and tank
Karina Gonçalves da Silva, Maurí­cio Lamano Ferreira, Emerson Alves da Silva, Shoey Kanashiro (2018) · Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira
Bromeliaceae epífitas de uma Área de Conservação da Amazônia brasileira
Ana Kelly Koch, João Ubiratan Moreira dos Santos, Anna Luiza Ilkiu‐Borges (2013) · Rodriguésia
Morphology of artificial hybrids of Vriesea splendens x Tillandsia cyanea and V-splendens x Guzmania lingulata (Bromeliaceae)
I. Vervaeke, Jasper Wouters, Elsje Londers, R. Deroose (2004) · Annales Botanici Fennici
Gas exchange and chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters of ornamental bromeliads
Karina Gonçalves da Silva, Emerson Alves da Silva, Maurí­cio Lamano Ferreira, Shoey Kanashiro (2017) · Ornamental Horticulture

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 125 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.