plant dioecious, lithophytic, occasionally terrestrial; rosettes acaulescent, caespitose, rounded in general shape, with short internodes, forming dense colonies of 3 to 10 rosettes. leaves several, reflexed, succulent, the sheath and blade differentiated; sheath widely oblong, glabrous, entire, white-lepidote and spinose only in the area close to the blade; blade succulent, narrowly triangular, acuminate at apex, margins antrorsely spinose, usually with a tuft of white trichomes between the spines. inflorescence central, emerging from a fully grown rosette (strict sympodial pattern sensu ramirez-morillo et al., 2014), erect to arched, rarely simple, usually paniculate, 1 or 2 times divided; peduncle terete, internodes increasing in length acropetally, surface waxy; peduncle bracts with sheaths widely oblong to ovate, white to greenish, glabrous, entire to finely spiny to the apex, their blades narrowly triangular, long-acuminate to acuminate at apex, basal ones longer than internodes and bent at an angle of 70° or completely recurved, white-lepidote abaxially and glabrous adaxially, the apical ones shorter than the internodes and erect, spiny, glabrous on both surfaces; staminate main axis with waxy surface; primary bracts oblong to triangular, acuminate to long-acuminate at apex, multinerved; floral bracts narrowly triangular to lanceolate, glabrous. flowers polystichous, sessile; sepals free, 3-nerved; petals free, entire, multinerved. stamens with conical, white filaments; anther oblong, dorsifixed; pistillate main axis with waxy surface; primary bracts* oblong to triangular, acuminate to long-acuminate at apex, multinerved; floral bracts* narrowly triangular to lanceolate, glabrous; flowers* polystichous, sessile; sepals* free, 3-nerved; petals* free, entire, multinerved; staminodes laminar, white. pistil: ovary 3/4 inferior, stigma 3-lobed, white, glabrous. fruits a loculicidal capsule, ellipsoid, with sepals, petals, and staminodes or stigmatic lobes rarely persistent, sometimes pendulous; seeds fusiform, brown, or reddish, with short wings; discussion; the three species of mesoamerantha are easily recognized when living, fertile material is available; on the other hand, when only herbarium material is available, the species are difficult to identify because most herbarium specimens are fragmentary, and some characters used in the key (such as colors, textures, etc.) are lost in the specimen preparation process; mesoamerantha guatemalensis is the easiest to identify when reproductive material is available, due to its 2- or 3-divided inflorescence, with a long rachis and deflexed fruits; the other two species are more similar to each other and share many characters; in most cases, geographical information correlated with morphological data is of great help (e.g., m; malvernii is found in honduras and nicaragua, whereas m; dichroantha is endemic to guatemala), but fertile structures of both sexes are required for positive determination.Edited from : Romero et al. 2022. A Taxonomic Revision of the Central American Genus Mesoamerantha (Bromeliaceae: Hechtioideae) .