Vriesea rubra (Ruiz & Pav.) Beer

Tillandsia rubra R. & P. FL Per.
riHands/a ^oKJcM!a(a Schlecht. & Cham. Linnaea 6: 54. 1831. Not T. paniciilala h. 1762.
TUlandsia Deppeana Steud. Nom. Bot. ed. 2. 2: 688. 1841.
Vriesea rubra Beer, Bromel. 98. 1857.
Tillandsia Fendleri Griseb. Nachr. Ges. Wiss. Gott. 1864: 17. 1865.
Tillandsia excelsa var. latifolia Griseb. Nachr. Ges. Wiss. Gott. 1864: 17. 1865.
Tillandsia incurvala Wright; Sauv. Anal. Acad. Ci. Habana 8: 54, excl. syn. 1871. As to material
cited. Tillandsia Kalbreyeri Baker, Jour. Bot. 26: 45. 1888.
Phytarhiza rubra E. Morren; Baker, Handb. Bromel. 206, as synonym. 1889. Tillandsia leiochlamys Baker, Handb. Bromel. 184. 1889. Tillandsia poniculata var. Fendleri Mez, in DC. Monog. Phan. 9: 703. 1896. Tillandsia paniculata var. costaricensis Mez, in DC. Monog. Phan. 9; 703. 1896. Tillandsia davigera Mez, in DC. Monog. Phan. 9: 783. 1896. Tillandsia Bangii Baker, Mem. Torrey Club 6: 124. 1896. Tillandsia macrodaclylon Mez, Repert. Nov. Sp. 3: 39. 1906. Tillandsia baliophylla Harms, Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin 12: 538. 1935.
Stemless, 1-2 m. high; leaves many in a dense crateriform rosette, 6-10 dm. long; sheaths subelliptic, inconspicuous, 1-3 dm. long, very densely brown-punctulate-Iepidote; blades ligtilate, triangular-acuminate, up to 8 cm. wide, flat, nearly or quite glabrous; scape erect, stout; scape-bracts erect, densely imbricate, foliaceous, very inconspicuously punctiJatelepidote; inflorescence lax, ample, pinnately compound with simple or divided branches; primary bracts like the upper scape-bracts, much shorter than the axillary branches but much larger than the floral bracts; spikes lanceolate, acute, complanate, densely 6-28-flowered, 1-3 dm. long, 5 cm. wide, often spreading or recurved, more or less stipitatc with reduced sterile bracts at the base; floral bracts narrowly obovate, keeled toward the apex, glabrous, even, coriaceous and rigid at least after anthesis, about equaling the sepals; flowers erect, shortstipitate; sepals oblong-lanceolate, acute, 25-45 mm. long, carinate, equally subfree; petals slightly exceeding the stamens.
Type locality: Peru.
DisTRtBUTioN: Mexico and Central America; West Indies; also from Venezuela to Peru and Bolivia.