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Orthophytum arcanum Leme  diagnose
plant stemless, flowering 5–6 cm high, propagating by stolons of 6–9 × 0.25–0.3 cm, rigid. leaves 10–12 in number, densely arranged, spreading; sheath subreniform, ca 0.7 × 1.6 cm, greenish, inconspicuously lepidote to glabrous, corrugate and spinulose in distal part; blade narrowly triangular, attenuate, 9–10 × 1–1.2 cm, coriaceous, channeled toward the apex, glabrous, yellowish-green to reddish, abaxially nerved, margins densely spinulose; spines triangular, antrorsely curved, reddish-castaneous, 0.2–0.5 mm long, 1.5–2 mm apart. inflorescence pseudosimple to inconspicuously compound, sessile or sometimes inconspicuously pedunculate, shortly corymbose, ca 2 cm long (fertile part, excluding the petals), ca 2.5 cm in diameter; primary bracts resembling the leaves, distinctly exceeding the flower fascicles, sometimes red near the base at anthesis. flowers fascicles inconspicuous, sessile or nearly so, ca 4 in number, ca 2-flowered; floral bracts the basal ones somewhat resembling the leaves, exceeding to slightly shorter than the flowers, the upper ones and those in the flower fascicles triangular, acute to acuminate, ca 15 × 6 mm, ecarinate, exceeded by the sepals, red, nerved, glabrous, thin in texture, margins densely spinulose; flowers* ca 23 mm long, sessile, odorless; sepals narrowly lanceolate, attenuate to caudate, ca 14 × 3 mm, free, entire, red, thin in texture, glabrous, carinate mainly towards the apex; petals narrowly spathulate, acute, ca 17 × 4 mm, free, white, bearing inconspicuously and sparsely glandular trichomes, erect except for the suberect distal portion, forming a subtubular corolla, bearing 2 appendages; petals* appendages ca 3 mm above the base, sacciform, margins recurved, irregularly scalloped-crenulate. stamens: filament unequal in length, terete, the antesepalous ones ca 12 mm long, free, the antepetalous ones ca 10 mm long, adnate to the petals for ca 3 mm; anther ca 3 mm long, base bilobed, apex obtuse, dorsifixed at 1/4 of its length above the base; pollen broadly ellipsoidal, ca 45 μm long, sulcate, the sulcus broad, sparsely covered with small exine elements, margins indistinct, exine reticulate. pistil: ovary subclavate, trigonous, ca 6 × 4 mm, white, glabrous; epigynous tube inconspicuous; stigma simple-patent, lobes spreading, transversely u-shaped, elongated, distinctly longer than broad, white, papillate; placentation apical; ovules many, obtusely apiculate. fruits not seen.

Edited from : Leme et al. 2020a. (protologue) Miscellaneous new species in the “Cryptanthoid complex” (Bromeliaceae: Bromelioideae) from Eastern Brazil .