plant growing on rocks, flowering at least 1.3 m high. leaves ca 70 cm long; sheath elliptic, to 20 cm long, to 10 cm wide, rusty coloured scales, inside dark chestnut brown; blade tongue shaped, tapering to a tip, to 50 cm long, to 7 cm wide, overall inconspicuously scaled with appressed dark spots. inflorescence: peduncle erect; peduncle bracts erect, imbricate, leaflike; fertile part once-branched, the main rachis mildly wavy; primary bracts ovate, longish acuminate, 4.5–7 cm long, abaxial smooth, adaxial scaled with dark spots; spikes spreading, then hanging down, to 12 cm long, the sterile stem to 4 cm long including bracts; rachis angled and winged, mildly bent; floral bracts densely imbricate, lancelike to elliptic, tipped, scaled, 45 mm long. flowers: pedicel to 4 mm long; sepals free, elliptic, blunt, about 30 mm long, not keeled, strongly nerved, inside scaled with dark spots.Translated by Derek Butcher from: Luther 1991b. (protologue) Tillandsia carnosa L.B.SMITH var. boliviensis H. Luther, var. nov. .