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Dyckia platyphylla (Wide-leafed Dyckia) - A very attractive terrestrial bromeliad that grows in clusters with individual plants reaching 8 inches tall with rosettes to 1 foot wide and having short wide glossy deep green leaves that blush bronze to even purple in full sun and are covered in silvery scales beneath and attractive whitish teeth along the margins. Does not seem to flower regularly but in spring to summer can appear the attractive 2 to 3 foot tall stalks of yellow-orange flowers.
Plant in full , part sun or light shade. Though this plant is not listed by some as frost hardy, others report it able to handle 15°F and we have found it to remain undamaged in temperatures in the low 20s° F. The similar Dyckia brevifolia is often listed as hardier and there is confusion between these two but Dyckia brevifolia is supposed to have distinct parallel lines on the leaf undersides while Dyckia platyphylla has a solid scurfy cover of silver scales. This is a great plant in the garden or as a potted specimen where a green or bronze coloration is needed to contrast with other foliage colors.
Lyman Bradford Smith (1904-1997), who life's work was the taxonomy of South American flowering plants and in particularly the bromeliads, described this plant in 1970 with the indication that it was collected by Mulford Bateman Foster (Father of the Bromeliads) in 1969 and it had his accession number as Foster 2489 from a collection location indicated only as Bahia (?) in Brazil. This plant has reportedly never been found in its natural habitat and there is speculation that it is a hybrid, maybe even involving Dyckia marnier-lapostollei and Dyckia brevifolia. The name for the genus honors Josef Maria Franz Anton Hubert Ignatz (1773-1861), who was the Prince and Earl of Salm Reifferscheid-Dyck and whose family ruled an area west of Cologne and Dusseldorf, Germany. The name is usually seen as Salm-Dyck. The specific epithet is from the Greek words 'platys' meaning "flat' or "broad" and 'phyllon' meaning "leaf" in reference to this species having wide short leaves. We first received this attractive terrestial bromeliad in 2008 from the collection of landscape contractor and professional animal trainer Jim Prine and sold it from 2013 until closing the nursery in 2025.
Information displayed on this page about Dyckia platyphylla is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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