Yup, you guessed right, the flower has been triggered. Commercial growers often treat with flower inducing agents, which may force even very young pups to bloom. They'll also sometimes do it before the plant has reached maturity, in order to produce "miniature" blooming Vrieseas or Guzmanias in 4" pots or smaller. People are always surprised when the pups produced from these little guys grow into full-sized plants!

So even the very young pups which are forced to bloom can produce their own pups?

Would this accelerate pup production as well? If you wanted to create a clump a little quicker than normal, could you trigger blooming early for maybe the first two generations to increase numbers without waiting for the plants to reach full size before pupping?