The bromelia originates from tropical Guyana and can be found throughout Central and South America. There, they appear in many shapes and colours including yellow with red, red, red with yellow, yellow with orange, red with orange, and purple. The Vriesea is a bromelia with a branched flower and compact green leaves. In the wild, frogs may go through their whole life cycle living in a bromeliad.
The genus name is for Willem Hendrik de Vriese, a Dutch botanist/physician (1806–1862).
An article posted by the Australian Bromeliad Conference by Dr. Gilbert Samyn thoroughly discusses some of the history of Vriesea cultivars. Dr. Samyn credits Belgian botanists and enthusiasts for being particularly successful in cultivating Vriesea hybrids. He cites the peak of enthusiasm for cultivating hybrids as being between 1879 and 1920. After that time, interest in unique plants decreased significantly. More people desired uniform, easy to care for varieties. Some of the hybrids have been lost since that time, other have been replicated in recent years and some have been consistently cultivated since the hybrids were first cultivated. In more recent years interest in unique bromeliads has increased and the hybridization for Vriesea is again more common.
