Tillandsia elongata var. subimbricata (Baker) L. B. Sm.

Tillandsia subimbricata Baker, Jour. Bot. 25 : 304. 1887
Tillandsia orthorhachis Mez & Baker; Mez, Bull. Torrey Club 30: 435. 1903.
Stemless, 1 m. high; leaves numerous in a utriculate rosette, up to 8 dm. long, densely punctulate-lepidote; sheaths ovate, large, not inflated; blades recurving, narrowly triangular, subulate-acuminate, 4 cm. wide; scape erect, I cm. in diameter; scape-bracts imbricate, the lower ones foliaceous with long reflexed laminae, the upper ovate and usually apiculate or with short filiform erect laminae; inflorescence laxly compound, its branches simple or rarely the lowest divided, curved-ascending; primary bracts like the upper scape-bracts, much shorter than the axillary branches; spikes linear, complanate, up to 20-flowered with several sterile bracts at base, 15 cm. long, 12 mm. wide; rhachis nearly straight, slender, angled, sulcate when dry, glabrous; floral bracts erect, two to three times as long as the internodes or sometimes less, exposing the rhachis, narrowly ovate, obtuse or apiculate, inrolled at apex, 18-20 mm. long, exceeding the sepals, subchartaceous, glabrous, strongly nerved; flowers subsessile; sepals narrowly elliptic, obtuse, 11-13 mm. long, glabrous, strongly nerved, equally subtree; petals 25 mm. long, blue or lilac; stamens included, equaling the pistil; capsule slenderly cylindric, 3-4 cm. long.
Type locality: Trinidad.
Distribution: Yucatan, Nicaragua, and Panama; Cuba and Jamaica; also in Trinidad and Colombia.