I can tell you Bom that my plant here was approaching 30 years of age before I had to divide it due to a build up of dead leaves. Eventually it will have to be separated. I would love to have an old plant like you describe as an addition to the collection.

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Thanks a lot gonzer for the reply. You're T. duratii looks ancient! Awesome specimen.

Anyway, the T. duratii I was referring to was sold to another buyer because I dilly dallied. I bought another one from the same collector but this one has no pup. It's also 30 years old more or less and about 4 feet long.

I hope to enjoy this plant for many more years.

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Wow! Fantastic plant Bom

A couple years ago a friend gave me around a 3' section of his large Bolivian form Tillandsia duratii. Within a relatively short amount of time it put out a very long spike that had purplish flowers around the size of a dime. It kept blooming and blooming for almost a month and the flowers smelled like grape koolaid. The large size of the Tillandsia combined with the fragrant, big flowers that sequentially open for such a long time make it easily my favorite Tillandsia. Unfortunately, only a few of the flowers were pollinated so I only have at most half a dozen seeds that are just starting to germinate.

The main lead stopped growing but there are now 3 decent sized shoots forming near the base of the flower spike. I definitely wouldn't consider it monocarpic like Furcraea macdougallii or Agave victoriae reginae...it's more like a sympodial orchid where the plant just develops into a specimen over time. My friend's Tillandsia duratii was an amazing specimen with several stems over 6' feet long.