Guzmania erythrolepis Brongn. ex Planch.

Guzmania erythrolepis Brongn.; Planch. Fl Sen-esH:25. 1856.
Plant stemless, 4 dm. high ; leaves 1 2-20 in a dense rosette, 4 dm. long, green, often purplish below, very obscurely punctulate-Iepidote throughout; sheaths small and inconspicuous, narrower than the blade; blades linear-lanceolate, acute, 4 cm. wide, chartaceous when drv; scape erect, short and largely concealed by the leaves, glabrous; scape-bracts erect, densely imbricate, the lower and middle foliaceous or red toward the base, the upper broadly elliptic, apiculate, bright-red with pale margins and greenish apex; inflorescence simple, ellipsoid, strobilate, fertile throughout, 10-15 cm. long, 30-45 mm. in diameter, glabrous or subglabrous; axis 8 mm. in diameter; floral bracts like the upper scape-bracts but broadly acute or oblu.se, 4 cm. long, 2 cm. wide, much exceeding the sepals, subchartaceous, even when fresh, finely striate when dry; flowers subsessile; sepals elliptic, broadly obtuse, 2 cm. long, coriaceous, darkcastaneous especially toward the base, connate for 4 mm.; petals barely exsertcd from the bracts, connate for most of their length, white, the free lobes elliptic, obtuse; stamens 5 mm. shorter than the petals, the filaments highly connate mth the petals; ovary slender.
Type locality: Santiago, Cuba. Distribution: Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto Rico.