South Florida has a subtropical climate, with pronounced wet and dry seasons. A mixture of temperate and tropical plants and animals occur in a variety of communities. South Florida lies at or just slightly above sea level, and changes in altitude of only a few feet can result in dramatic changes in associated plant communities.

The Everglades region is primarily a saw-grass marsh, within which slight elevations in its limestone rock foundation, called hammocks, support communities of tropical hardwoods, which in turn support many of the state's native bromeliad populations. Bromeliads can also be found in sloughs (slightly deeper and therefore wetter areas) containing cypress swamps, in dwarf cypress domes among the prairie ecosystem, or in the drier, upland pine flatwoods. Large areas of these unique communities are protected in parks in southern Florida, but development and man-made hydrological changes have threatened many of the areas not under public control.

Epiphytic bromeliads have highly restricted habitat preferences, in large part based on their ability to absorb mineral nutrients from specific environments. Some species are only found where canopy and humidity conditions are just right. Bromeliads generally prefer moist habitats that are well lit, although requirements vary by species. Many species are most commonly found near rivers, lakes, and ponds.

Bromeliads will rarely colonize all potential host plants within a habitat. Florida's species of Tillandsia are often found on oak and cypress trees, whose rough bark provides a suitable substrate for seedling attachment, as well as on hackberry trees. Hackberry and live oak trees have many spreading horizontal branches that provide a large area for epiphytic growth. Tillandsias generally prefer host trees that branch considerably, have a thick, rough bark with enough crevices to hold seeds, and do not produce chemicals (allelopathic substances) unfavorable for seedling growth. For example, seedlings are not able to develop on many tropical trees such as camphor because of the chemicals produced by the trees.

Florida's threatened and endangered bromeliads occur in the following communities, as defined by the Florida Natural Areas Inventory:

Xeric Uplands: "very dry, deep, well-drained hills of sand with xeric-adapted vegetation"

Scrub: "old dune with deep fine sand substrate; xeric; temperate or subtropical; occasional or rare fire (20 - 80 years); sand pine and/or scrub oaks and/or rosemary and lichens" - Tillandsia balbisiana

Xeric Hammock: "upland with deep sand substrate; xeric-mesic; temperate or subtropical; rare or no fire; live oak and/or sand live oak and/or laurel oak and/or other oaks, sparkleberry, saw palmetto" - Tillandsia flexuosa, Tillandsia fasciculata, Tillandsia utriculata

Coastal Uplands: "substrate and vegetation influenced primarily by such coastal (maritime) processes as erosion, deposition, salt spray, and storms"

Coastal Berm: "old bar or storm debris with sand/shell substrate; xeric-mesic; subtropical or temperate; rare or no fire; buttonwood, mangroves, and/or mixed halophytic herbs and/or shrubs and trees" - Tillandsia flexuosa

Maritime Hammock: "stabilized coastal dune with sand substrate; xeric-mesic; subtropical or temperate; rare or no fire; mixed hardwoods and/or live oak" - Tillandsia flexuosa

Shell Mound: "Indian midden with shell substrate; xeric-mesic; subtropical or temperate; rare or no fire; mixed hardwoods" - Tillandsia flexuosa

Rocklands: "low, generally flat limestone outcrops with tropical vegetation; or limestone exposed through karst activities with tropical or temperate vegetation"

Pine Rockland: "flatland with exposed limestone substrate; mesic-xeric; subtropical; frequent fire; south Florida slash pine, palms and/or hardwoods, and mixed grasses and herbs" - Tillandsia fasciculata, Tillandsia utriculata, Tillandsia balbisiana

Rockland Hammock: "flatland with limestone substrate; mesic; subtropical; rare or no fire; mixed tropical hardwoods, often with live oak" - Catopsis berteroniana, Catopsis floribunda, Guzmania monostachia, Tillandsia flexuosa, Tillandsia variabilis, Tillandsia utriculata, Tillandsia fasciculata

Palustrine: "Wetlands dominated by plants adapted to anaerobic substrate conditions imposed by substrate saturation or inundation during 10% or more of the growing season. Includes non-tidal wetlands; tidal wetlands with ocean derived salinities less than 0.5 ppt and dominance by salt-intolerant species; small (less than 8 ha), shallow (less than 2 m deep at low water) water bodies without wave-formed or bedrock shoreline; and inland brackish or saline wetlands"

Floodplain Wetlands: "flat, alluvial sand or peat substrates associated with flowing water courses and subjected to flooding but not permanent inundation; wetland or mesic woody and herbaceous vegetation"

Slough: "broad, shallow channel with peat over mineral substrate; seasonally inundated, flowing water; subtropical; occasional or rare fire; pop ash and/or pond apple or water lily" - Catopsis berteroniana, Catopsis nutans, Guzmania monostachia

Strand Swamp: "broad, shallow channel with peat over mineral substrate; seasonally inundated, flowing water; subtropical; occasional or rare fire; cypress and/or willow" - Catopsis floribunda, Guzmania monostachia, Tillandsia fasciculata, Tillandsia pruinosa, Tillandsia utriculata, Tillandsia balbisiana, Tillandsia variabilis

Marine/Estuarine: "Subtidal, intertidal and supratidal zones of the sea, landward to the point at which seawater becomes significantly diluted with freshwater inflow from the land"

Tidal Swamp: "expansive intertidal and supratidal area occupied primarily by woody vascular macrophytes (e.g., black mangrove, buttonwood, red mangrove, and white mangrove); may include various epiphytes and epifauna" - Catopsis berteroniana, Tillandsia flexuosa

Descriptions of all natural community types in Florida are published by the Florida Natural Areas Inventory.