Short seed longevity of any species implies that the species production and management programmes must always consider germination of fresh seeds.
However, little information exists regarding whetherseeds of Tillandsia are orthodox or recalcitrant; while orthodoxbehavior has been reported for Bromelicaeae species of another fivegenera (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, 2008; Pereira et al., 2010), onlythe seeds of T. polystachia have been reported as orthodox (RoyalBotanic Gardens Kew, 2008). The fact that the species studied dis-persed seeds at the end of the dry season suggests that seeds dry outduring maturation and dehiscence. In addition, germination of T.hubertiana and T. recurvata seeds after more than one year stored atcool temperatures was 33.3% and 78.9%, respectively, while at roomtemperatures germination after a year was less than 10% in bothspecies. The percentage of germination found in T. hubertiana aftera year of storage at cool temperatures was similar to that found inthe rupicolus bromeliad Pitcairnia albiflos stored at −15◦C (Pereiraet al., 2010) and seven epiphytic bromeliads after 26 months storedat −20◦C (germination ranged between 74% and 100%, Zotz, 2013b).Our evidence suggests that the seeds of the Tillandsia species stud-ied here behave as orthodox seeds, but a specific study would benecessary to confirm this status.