Hechtias have beautiful and very floriferous inflorescences.
I've had this one for a minimum of fifteen years with no bloom.
So for me this is an event!I hope our experts will check this and let me know if it doesn't fit the description.
To let you figure out the size of this plant, that is a 30 inch by 40 inch photomount board behind it!
The vegetative part seems small to me, compared with others I have.
I have received two e-mails about the identity of this plant
The first is from Dr. Walter Till of the University of Vienna Botanical Garden.
The second is from Dutch Vandervort of Ventura CA.
I present them here.
"Definitely NOT H. glomerata. Looks like caerulea albeit too small in habit. Best wishes, Walter"
" H. caerulea is a functionally spineless plant, sort of a robust tillandsioides. H. caerulea wants to be big, but growing it in any pot, especially a small pot gives it a bonsai effect.
H. glomerata is a spiny plant with flowers in clusters.
H. epigyna has soft, stubby, flexible spines -- not too sharp, not difficult to handle.
The median strip plant is assuredly H. caerulea.
My thought is that pictures 2 and 4 are both the same potted H. caerulea.
Picture 1 is most likely the same species, maybe even the same plant. Picture 3 is the H. caerulea in my street."