The large roots are a good indication that your plant is lithophyte or, rock-grower. It's actually too small for a posive ID and I wouldn't say "no" to it being a hybrid. BTW, how do you do that with your thumb?

Lars, I think your "Pseudobaileyi" is not. See images at: http://www.rainforestflora.com/store/tillandsia/A11070/pseudobaileyi/?name=pseudobaileyi which look like the two I have (one via mail order, the other a lucky find at a local nursery). I don't know about the Straminea, but it looks nice, both your plants do.

As for Paul's plant, there are many that look like it, maybe http://airplants4u.com/Aiplantsforsale.html lots of enlarge-able pictures [they misspelled link on site but it works okay]. Your plant rather reminds me of a brachycaulos (http://airplants4u.com/images/brachycaulosgreen.JPG), a plant that comes in several sizes and colors. It could also be a Capitata.

I can do that with my thumbs, too. A bit of double-jointed-ness in several fingers :)

thank you for the help and links guys! this will help alot

actually, I also think that what I have is a brachycaulos. hmm

haha yeah I also think my thumb is double jointed. my sister can do it too!

how about Eric Knobloch? watd'ya think?

To me it looks like small t. xerographica.

Paul, you could be right! Pictures at:

http://www.rainforestflora.com/store/tillandsia/A30220/Eric-Knobloch-/
http://plantoddities.com/cgi-bin/p/awtp-product.cgi?d=plant-oddities&item=2584
http://www.ctsairplants.com/LG_Tillandsia_Eric_Knobloch_p/ericknob101.htm

A Eric Knobloch is a mix of a Brachycaulos and a streptophylla, so...

Raxidor, I doubt #2 is a xerographica as I picture them with wider leaves that are curlier (depending on how much moisture the plant is getting), and xerographicas are gray like #1. I have a T chiapensis that looks like a small xerographica, though most of those I've seen on line don't look as ball-shaped as mine chiapensis. I do know that xerographicas can get quite large (maybe basketball size) before they bloom and the stalk and flowers are quite long. I may have to get a new, bigger apartment if either of mine decide to bloom...!

It's fun to try to identify these! I'll have to post a pic of one I'm not sure of.

Edit to add: I'm sorry if I've gotten Lars's and Paul's pictures mixed up.

I think I'll consider for a while that it is a T. Eric knobloch.

I'll just have to wait for it to grow some more to know what it really is.

Thanks for the help guys! :)

See Journal of the Bromeliad Society
Volume 28, #2, 1978
available for download at
http://journal.bsi.org/?vol=25
bottom row, 2nd from left, click on it, it opens as an html (regular web page).

I have a computer not connected to a printer, so I "print" on it to PDF using cutePDF free software for Windows 7 [no doubt other similar software is available], thus I saved all the journals I could from this site as PDFs for later reading. (Very recent Journals are only available for subscribers though at this time.)

I just came across this article and thought of you, Paul:

On page 20 (bottom, of the PDF, scroll down if reading on line) of Vol 28 #2 is an article on A New Hybrid Tillandsia, "Eric Knobloch"

Nice looking plant! May be too big for me though, I like them smaller. I may think differently in the spring next year :)