Carol - I know exactly how you feel. When I first started growing brom's some years back, I had a quite large clump of Bill. pyramidalis as the centre piece in my shade house. Eventually it flowered and I was the proudest man in the street; it was just a beautiful mass of red. Eventually the flowers died as I knew they would, and I thought no more about it. During winter that year we had a few days with temps near freezing, (unusual for where I live) and a week later I noticed some spotting on the leaves but due to inexperience I took no notice and didn't realise this was cold damage. About three weeks later there were brown and black leaves all over the plant, and it looked so ugly I pulled it out and put it in a disused corner of the garden and forgot all about it. A couple of months later I notice something which looked light green in the corner of the garden and when I looked more closely, there were numerous pups with beautiful healthy looking light green foliage. To cut a long story short, these went on to flower that year, and as winter approached and the weather got colder, the same thing happened; more cold damage and more black leaves. The same thing has happened each year and it always bounces back with abundant new growth which eventually flowers ...... and so the cycle begins again. My theory is that because the plant gets so stressed from cold damage this triggers the in-built "survival mechanism" which produces abundant pups to ensure it's survival. The bottom line is, nothing looks more beautiful than this plant when in flower, and nothing looks more ugly if it suffers from severe cold damage. However, the light at the end of the tunnel is that it always bounces back and flowers again. You say, " it is pupping like mad now", and this is exactly the sort of thing that happened to me. Just give it a little fertiliser to help it along and leave everything as it is until the pups are nearing maturity. Old leaves can gradually be trimmed back to tidy it up, but leave any with green on them attached to the plants until the pups mature as these are still assisting in the manufacture of nourishment for the pups. All the best, Nev.

It sounds like a Cryptanthus, possibly C. bivittatus or one of its cultivars or hybrids. If it is a Crypt, it is not an epiphyte and must be grown in soil/potting mix, not mounted. They are called "earth stars" for good reason! Here is a link that might be useful:

Hi everyone. Maria – Your plant is a bromeliad of the Neoregelia genera but as for a specific varietal name I can’t help you as there are hundreds in the same colour range including some species as well as many, many hybrids. Like the majority of bromeliads, these are “epiphytes” which means they are plants that grow on another plant, (usually a tree). They are not parasitic and don’t feed from the tree on which they are growing, but just use it as a host. Any nourishment is obtained from the rain as it mixes with leaf litter, combined with bird and small animal dropping located in the central vase and leaf axils of the plant. As this rots down it provides a very, very, dilute natural fertiliser on a continuous basis. You say, “This bromeliad was one of hundreds invading a tree”; if you remove “invading” and replace it with “growing naturally on”, you are describing the usual way these plants grow in nature. To grow them successfully in your own yard you need to either attach them to a tree so they can follow their natural method of growth. (If you chose this method, make sure they are attached firmly, because if they can move, the roots won’t attach, they will just continually break), or you can grow them in a pot. You’ve approached their culture similar to that of air plants such as Tillandsias and you say, “They have since been nestled in the connection holes of these plastic stacking tables, where I keep my adenium seedlings. Other than some obvious dryness, they are still alive after an entire two years as air plants”. True, they are still alive and are surviving, but they won’t be happy plants as they are “doing it tough”. The thing is, they will survive as you have found out, but by growing them this way you aren’t meeting all of the true cultural requirements of an epiphytic plant as they can’t attach to anything and they aren’t getting sufficient nutrition (Unless you are fertilising them). If you don’t have a tree on which to attach them, you can successfully grow them in a pot like thousands of other growers do, because these plants are very adaptable. When they grow on a tree, the roots primarily are just used as an anchor and the majority of moisture and nourishment is absorbed through the leaves. When they are grown in pots, their roots then play a more important primary role of taking up extra moisture and nourishment even though the foliage will still absorb some. All that’s required is a pot of a suitable size to accommodate the plant and a good quality “open and free draining” potting mix similar to the coarse bark based mixes used in which to grow orchids. Just water occasionally e.g. once a week in summer and each two weeks in winter with occasional early morning or late afternoon light spraying in between if the weather is hot. You can also (although it's not necessary) occasionally provide a half strength fertiliser applied monthly over the foliage as well as watered into the potting mix. Locate the plants out of the wind in a well-lit position (but not full sun) and you will find they should happily start growing and producing pups. Any comments I make are based on how I grow my plants here in our temperate region of Australia. You may need to make adjustments to suit your own growing conditions. However, basically if you try and copy how these plants grow in nature you should get good results. All the best, Nev.

tj Thanks Aechmea was my thought and A. weilbachii one I looked at, but all images of it showed the inflorescence much bluer. Maybe the inflorescences are not fully developed, yet. As the EP is only 1hr from me, I shall be back, very regularly. (To thaw out, if for no other reason.) Fof