Monographs Details:
Authority:

Smith, Lyman B. & Downs, Robert J. 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 14 (2): 663-1492. (Published by NYBG Press)
Family:

Bromeliaceae
Description:

Description - Plant 25 cm high; stem rhizomatous, curved, very short but often branched. Leaves many in a dense rosette, spreading, 6-9 cm long, densely white- or ferruginous-lepidote with appressed to slightly spreading basally produced scales; sheaths subtriangular, small, scarcely distinct from the blade; blades linear-subulate, filiform-attenuate, rigid, 2 mm wide at base. Scape erect or ascending, exceeding the leaves, 1 mm in diameter, glabrous; scape-bracts erect, partially clasping the scape, exceeding the internodes or the uppermost sometimes slightly shorter, ovate, abruptly acute or caudate, 8 mm long without the caudate apex, chartaceous, prominently nerved, at least the lowest densely appressed-lepidote. Inflorescence simple, 7 cm long, lax, 6-8-flowered; rhachis geniculate, slender, angled, glabrous. Floral bracts subspreading, equaling or shorter than the internodes, broadly elliptic, acute or apiculate, 11 mm long, much shorter than the sepals, ecarinate, membranaceous, densely appressed-lepidote; flowers subspreading; pedicels distinct, stout, 2-5 mm long. Sepals elliptic, obtuse, 14 mm long, 5 mm wide, submembranaceous, prominently nerved, appressed-lepidote, becoming glabrous with age, free; petals ligulate, obtuse, 3 cm long, bright red; stamens exserted, shorter than the pistil. Capsule 4-5 cm long, slender, acute.

Distribution:

Mexico North America| Sinaloa Mexico North America| Guerrero Mexico North America| Oaxaca Mexico North America| Chiapas Mexico North America| Guatemala Central America| Quiché Guatemala Central America| Huehuetenango Guatemala Central America| San Marcos Guatemala Central America| Quezaltenango Guatemala Central America| Suchitepéquez Guatemala Central America| Cuba South America| Oriente Cuba South America| Jamaica South America| Saint Elizabeth Jamaica South America|