I have a T. cyanea that did the exact same thing. It also turned green after it finished flowering.

Somebody else here may know more and could correct me on this, but I like to think its because when it finishes blooming, the plant reserves its energy rather than using its sugars to create the pigments that make red. It no longer has a reason for attracting insects so it doesn't waste its energy on red pigments. So the existing cholophyll shows through making it appear green.

Another idea may be that when its done flowering the chlorophyll overtakes the red pigments and uses the inflorescence as a new sort-of leaf, so that has a greater ability for producing more sugars. On my plant, it remained green for awhile, but after a couple months, it started turning yellow and brown. That's when i cut it off. You can leave it on, or remove it whenever you please. It won't harm it either way.

I'be taken some university botany classes and these are just my own observations. I could totally be off base but it makes sense to me.

Good news on the pups peeking out. Mine is doing the same. They will grow into new plants and when mature they will send out new flowers. Yay!

Thanks for the reply, Fresh. I appreciate your scientific approach in your interpretation and it makes sense. When I see the plantlets, I kind of guessed that the blooming period was over but I was reluctant to believe it. lol

Hi everyone.

Sunflowerpoet - That's all good information from Fresh and to take it a little further it doesn't just apply to Tillandsias but most other bromeliads as well.

To sum up the life of a bromeliad: The plant grows, it flowers and when finished it starts to die. After a while it will produce offsets (Pups) which will continue to grow into plants and flower themselves which starts the cycle all over again.

While ever the dead or dying paddle-shaped inflorescence is on the original Mother plant, it will continue to suck nourishment from it. For this reason, as soon as it becomes untidy looking it's best to cut it off.

By doing this it now makes more nourishment available to the development new pups and to help them even further it also helps to give the old mother plant a bit of extra fertiliser to help compensate for the nourishment being drawn from her by the pups. This will help them to establish a root system and grow more quickly into new plants.

The old Mother plant will gradually lose its leaves as they die from the bottom up. It's OK to trim off these dead leaves to keep the plant looking tidy, but once the pups have reached a suitable size the old Mother plant can be removed completely. This will allow more pot space in which the new pups can grow.

You can leave the pups together in the pot and allow therm to clump up (My preference) or you can remove them and pot them up singly to increase the number of plants.

This plant has recently had a "name change" and is no longer called a Tillandsia. It is now called Wallisia cyanea.

There is also an attractive variegated form of this plant, see pic. below.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Wallisia cyanea - Variegated form.

All the best, Nev.