Dichelostemma ida maia.

Cryptanthus zonatus cultivar, EARTHSTAR. Joe

My assumption was that it had been overheated/lighted. Wal-Mart's "garden center" is really just a big fishnet on poles, you know, and I get the feeling the local folks don't know the difference between tropical and backyard plants. But I digress. I've cut the brown out, mostly, I'll get a little closer when I'm more awake. Interestingly, I have three options for keeping this fella: the first floor has the a/c.. right now its about 77F. The second floor feels muggier to me, but then, I dislike muggy! The third floor is much hotter and still humid. All floors have NSEW exposures, I was thinking south? As for the roots, I'll have to look; I thought there was a bulb or something attached to them. I left it alone not knowing what it was. I assume it got scorched, but having read up first I'm hoping the pup will make it! Drenched, as in the 5" pot it was in- the soil was completely soaked like they had dropped it in the pool. It was packed quite hard also, which is why I wanted to get it into something more to its liking. I don't expect to see results quickly, but how long should it take before I see improvement/further deterioration? I do keep an eye on the water in the leaves, they're still doing ok. I'll rinse and refill the leaves tomorrow. And perhaps I've been misinformed, but I was under the impression that broms preferred a faster draining soil?

You're not embarassing yourself at all, Patris, and I'm glad to see you using the FCBS index. The only thing is it's set up so that you can't post a picture that you've found from the index because the URL doesn't change when you click the thumbnails. Next time, copy the name of the plant you've found, google it and do an image search and you can post that picture because they apparently have a different data base for that. Not sure how that works but I just recently figured that out myself. Alcantarea odorata is not a bad guess. It is in the right branch of the family and has a lot of similar characteristics. One difference I see, though, is that your plant is glossy green on the upper surface of the leaves and not silver. Also you describe it as feeling kind of velvety. There are different kinds of whitish or silvery coatings and it is hard to distinquish from a picture which one you have, but a fuzzy texture usually indicates well-developed trichomes (leaf scales) and this is very characteristic of a lot of Tillandsias. The silvery-leaved Alcantarea species have more of a glaucous (powdery) coating to them, which would feel smooth, and the leaf would not be thick or succulent. That is true of some Tillandsias too (although not most), and all of the Catopsis, so I have now crossed that genus off my list as well-- also because of the larger size and not finding a good match. The Alcantarea gets to be 6 or 7 feet tall, I think, so that's bigger than what you've got too, although size can vary. The Alcantareas are a really confusing bunch anyway, at least as far as the names go. There's a lot of them that don't fit neatly into any of the described species. I grew some from seed that my husband collected in Brazil and according to Harry Luther (at the Bromeliad Identification Center) they are all part of a probable "hybrid swarm" and can't be nailed down. I still think Derek Butcher is right and you have some kind of Tillandsia. Tillandsias comprise the single biggest genus in the family and the variations are endless, so that's not surprising. I'm not sure what Derek's title would be aside from being the official cultivar registrar for the BSI, but "guru" would be a reasonable description. He knows plenty and likes to delve into the minutia of what distinguishes one species from another. BTW, now that you are becoming more knowledgeable, please do me a favor and erase the phrase "air plant" from your memory bank. Even the smallest most epiphytic Tills need more than just air, so that's really a misnomer. That, and saying "bromel-AID" are big no-nos in my book! ;-) Here is a link that might be useful: Alcantarea odorata