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Recently, I spent a wonderful morning at the United State Botanic Garden in DC. I’d gone to the Botanic Garden to photograph their holiday displays – and ended up spending much more time exploring the jungle section of the Garden than I did photographing the holiday disply.

As I walked around photographing, I noticed many plants belonging to the Bromeliad family.  What kept catching my eye was all the different shapes and colors of the plants and their flowers. Here are a few of my favorite photos of the Bromeliads from my trip to the US Botanic Garden.

The first bromeliad I photographed was Tillandsia Ionantha, also known as a Sky Plant, is found in Mexico and Central America. I really like the purple and yellow shoots among the red and green of the plant.

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(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

Next is Vriesea Tiffany. I loved the way the sun streaming through the glass of the Botanic Garden backlit the yellow and orange flower.

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Tiffany Bromeliad (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

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(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

The final bromeliad I photographed is Tillandsia Cyanea or Pink Quill, which is native to Ecuador. There are several Pink Quills at the Botanic Garden. Each one that was in bloom had a pink plume with a purple flower on it.

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Pink Quill Bromeliad (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

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(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

I had a wonderful time photographing the bromeliads at the U.S. Botanic Gardens. I’m really looking forward to heading back there and photographing more of them.