Tillandsia schiedeana Steud.

Tillandsia schiedeana Steud. Nom. Bot. ed. 2. 2: 688. 1841
Tillandsia veslila Schlecht. & Cham. Linnaea 6: 52. 1831. Not T. veslila Willd. 1830. Tillandsia flavescens Mart. & Gal. Bull. Acad. Brux. 10': 118. 1843. Tillandsia Grisebachii Baker, Jour. Bot. 25: 305. 1887. Tillandsia Eggersii Baker, Handb. Bromel. 170. 1889.
Distinctly caulescent; flowering plant up to 4 dm. long, but usually not much more than 2 dm., often pulvinate; stem 5-20 cm. long, simple or few-branched; leaves polystichous-ranked, varying greatly in density, up to 25 cm. long, densely cinereous-lepidote or ferruginous-lepidote; scales appressed near the apex of leaf, pruinose below; sheaths suborbicular, large, densely imbricate and making the stem appear very stout, at least the margin hyaline, glabrous only where covered; blades very narrowly triangular, filiform-acuminate, involute-subulate; scape terminal, erect, shorter than the leaves; scape-bracts imbricate and concealing the scape, the lower foliaceous, the upper thinner and usually roseate but usually with a distinct filiform lamina also; inflorescence always simple, distichous or sometimes polystichous at base, lanceolate, acuminate at both ends, terete, up to 7 cm. long and 8 mm. in diameter but often less than half as large, densely few-flowered; rhachis nearly straight, slender, strongly sulcate, glabrous; floral bracts densely imbricate and wholly concealing the rhachis, twice or thrice as long as the internodes, elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse or the basal ones minutely apiculate, about 30 mm. long and 10 mm. wide, much exceeding the sepals, membranaceous, roseate, strongly nerved, the lower ones appressed-lepidote, the upper ones often glabrous; flowers sessile, up to 46 mm. long; sepals lanceolate, acute, up to 20 mm. long, subcoriaceous, glabrous, even or few-nerved, the posterior ones usually much connate; petals tubular-erect, yellow; stamens and pistil exserted; ovary ellipsoid; capsule cylindric, up to 45 mm. long.
T^TE LOCALITY: Hacienda de la Laguna, near Actopan, Vera Cruz.
Distribution: West Indies; Mexico and Central America; also in Colombia and Venezuela.