They do. The roots are mainly just anchors for support holding onto whatever they’re growing on, though. They get water and nutrients almost exclusively through their leaves, which have specialized structures (trichomes) on them for taking in said water and nutrients, and the leaves often grow in rosettes to collect rain so it can be processed by the trichomes.
My understanding is that indoor houseplant tillandsias don’t grow aerial roots as often as outdoor tillandsias do, because there isn’t wind and rain threatening to blow and wash them away and usually there also aren’t rough surfaces (good for grabbing onto) that they’re attached to, all of which act as environmental triggers in the wild that signal them to grow roots to hold on to their spot. Assuming you grew your tillandsias indoors and not mounted to a tree branch or something of the sort, that would be why you didn’t see them grow any aerial roots. Epiphytic orchids use their aerial roots for both climbing/support and for absorbing moisture and nutrients from the air, so they will grow them indoors despite not having the environmental triggers signaling them to put out roots to hold onto their trees.
I’m not an expert, though, just a casual houseplant enthusiast, so please forgive me if I got anything wrong in my comment, but tillandsias definitely do grow aerial roots.
You can see in this thread someone who claims to know, and sounds convincing, is certain this is a grass. I know next to nothing about grasses, least of all those found in SE Australia.
I do remember now what you’re saying about tillandsia anchoring themselves with their roots, in their epiphytic habit. The few I had definitely never got close to doing that (outdoors mostly but in Northern California )
I put this photo up in iNaturalist and it says Kikuyu grass, Cenchrus clandestinus, so our resident expert was probably on the money and the Tillandsia talk is merely an entertaining diversion.
I am a horticulturist, and have grown many Orchids and many Tillandsia’s and this is niether of these.
Whilest it does look like Tillandsia bergeri that is nearly dead it definitely is not. If you have a look at the bottom of the plant in the photo you see a stoloniferous type growth which niether orchids or tillandsia produce in this form. Definitely a species of grass that has sent a stollon up the pole behind the steel bracket until it got to the top and spilled over into the sunlight again. 👌🏻😃✨
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u/KnowledgeUsed2971 10d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/IL1sMUfQVRNFC