Bromeliad Billbergia pyramidalis [ENG/ESP]

I always visit a plant store near my house because they have a great variety of species. What I like most about this place is that the owners are patient people, and they explain very well about the care that should be taken of those plants that catch the attention of the buyer.

Although bromeliads can indeed be very common in some countries as in the central part of America and part of its mountain range, in Europe, they are still considered an exotic plant despite having arrived on the continent from the eighteenth century. It is a plant that needs a temperate climate and frequent watering. When the plant is small it can often grow near the trunks of some trees, being an epiphyte plant, but it can also grow directly on the ground.

The bromeliad Billbergia pyramidalis is a plant that needs space to be cultivated. It needs sun exposure but not direct sun. So currently, as I have no space at home, I could only enjoy this species in the plant store. However, this did not stop me from learning more about it.

Why did this plant catch my attention so much?
Well, its flower is so striking that the eyes are drawn directly to it and it stands out from the other plants.

I am not a professional photographer, I just use my cell phone camera, and I tried to take some pictures of the flower of this wonderful plant. I confess that its intense red and violet color at the end of the apex of each leaf is quite a challenge for the photograph not to be saturated with color. For some of these photos, I had to edit them with Snapseed so that I could enjoy all the detail of these inflorescences.

This plant only flowers once, so it was a gift to be able to find several of them in this process that occurs at the end of the summer. From the time the flower stalk emerges to the full opening of the flower it usually takes 12 weeks.

As you can see in the picture, the flower has light red triangular-shaped leaves that are the ones that give the name "pyramidalis" to this bromeliad but should not be confused with part of the flower. The flower is borne from the small reddish violet-tipped buds that can be seen emerging from the middle of the flower stalk. They look a bit like fingers.

In this picture, we can already appreciate the complete flower, where its petals are fully opened, revealing its violet-tipped stigma and yellow ochre stamens. This flower is a beauty, it seems to be hand-painted by an artist. I imagine that this was the intention of that great energy that gave life to everything in nature.