Bromelia karatas L.

Bromelia karatas L. Sp. PI. 285. 1753
Bromelia Acanga L. Syst. Nat. cd. 12. 2: 232, in part. 1767. Bromelia acaulis Stokes, Hot. Mat. Med. 2: 204. 1812. Nidularium Karalas Lemaire; Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 591. 1864. Karalas Plumieri E. Morren, Bclg. Hortic. 22: 131. 1872.
Flowering plant up to 3 m. in diameter, barely 3 dm. high; leaves many in a dense rosette, 15 dm. long, not at all constricted between the sheath and the blade; sheaths large, broadly triangular, entire or somewhat serrate toward the apex, densely lepidote with elongate coarse dark-brown scales; blades linear, acuminate, pungent, 3-5 cm. wide, very minutely appresscdlepidote below, densely serrate with stout brown teeth 5-8 mm long; inflorescence nianyflowercd, densely capitiform, flat-lopped, sunk in the center of the leaf-rosette, .surrounded by the cinnabar-red inner leaves; primary bracts like the inner leaves but with shorter blades; axes of the inflorescence much abbreviated; floral bracts narrowly oblanccolatc, attaining the middle of the scfjals, entire or sparsely serrate, membranaceous, coarsely lepidote; flowers 6-9 cm. long; pedicels very short and stout; sepals narrowly lanceolate, acute but not mucronate, 3 cm. long, erect, free, coarsely brown-lepidote; inrtals narrowly lanceolate, up to 4 cm. long, connate for more than 2 cm., glabrous, fleshy, rose with white base and margins; ovary triangular-prismatic,
densely ferruginous-Iepidote; berry fusiform, 8 cm. long, 2 cm. in diameter.
Type locality: Tropical America.
Distribution: Mexico and the West Indies, and southward to Guiana and Colombia.