Tillandsia yunckeri L. B. Sm.

Tillandsia yunckeri L. B. .Smith; Yuncker, Field Mus. Publ Bot. 17: 322. 1938.
Plant stemless, probably about 5 dm. high; leaves many in a crateriform rosette, straight, 4 dm. long, strongly suffused with purple; sheaths broadly elliptic, about 15 cm. long, densely punctulate-lepidote; blades ligulate, acute, up to 5 cm. wide, flat, glabrous above, obscurely punctulate-lepidote below; scape erect, stout, glabrous; scape-bracts erect, densely imbricate, foliaceous, large; inflorescence compound with simple branches, slenderly pyramidal, 2 dm. long, the apical half dense; primary bracts suborbicular with a short foliaceous blade, exceeding and closely enfolding the axillary spikes, bright-red, glabrous, lustrous; spikes sessile, broadly lanceolate, acute, densely 4-flowered with a sterile bract at the base, 65 mm. long, 25 mm. wide, complanate, the upper suberect, the lower spreading; floral bracts lance-ovate, acute, up to 45 mm. long, much exceeding the sepals, sharply carinate with flat sides, coriaceous, even or faintly nerved, glabrous; flowers subsessile; sepals lanceolate, acuminate, 3 cm. long, coriaceous, glabrous, sharply carinate, the posterior ones much connate; petals tubular-erect, 5-6 cm. long; stamens probably exserted.
Type locality: Summit of range above El Achole, above the plains of Siguatepeque, Comayagua, Honduras, altitude 1800 meters.
Distribution: Known only from the type locality.