; 0 acaulescent. leaves about a dozen in a rosette, spreading nearly from the base, lorate, about a foot long, 1 ½ –2 in; broad, pale green, copiously and conspicuously marbled both on the back and face with irregular confluent blotches of red-brown, deltoid-cuspidate at the tip, with a spot of bright red; below the cusp, the marginal priokles small; capitulum dense, central, 1 ½ –2 in; diam. pistil: ovary white, ½ in; long. flowers: sepals green, lanceolate, very acute, longer than the ovary; petals pale violet, but little longer than the sepals. stamens: filament very short.Edited from : Baker 1889. Handbook of the Bromeliaceae .