compare with R. kessleri, very similar, but stipe of primary branches longer and first secondary branches often opposite, see also observations
Acknowledgments: we want to thank Dr. Lubbert Westra (U) for providing the Latin diagnosis, Dr. Ricardo Fernández (Universidad San Marcos, Lima, Peru, Herbarium USM) for making the specimens available for examination, and Dr. Philip Wittman for providing digital images of the plants in situ. The Missouri Botanical Garden (MO) for the access to their specimen. The paratype vouchers (C. Porter et al.) were collected during expeditions support by the National Geographic Society grant 7731-04.
Authors: E.J. Gouda: Curator Utrecht University Botanic Gardens, The Netherlands. J.M. Manzanares: Curator of Bromeliaceae at QCNE, Quito, Ecuador.
By coincidence both authors were initially working independently on manuscripts describing material that, we later found out, related to the same new species. Manzanares had the specimen collected by Robin B. Foster on loan from the Missouri Botanical Garden (MO) and Gouda was working on the C. Porter et al. specimen after Ricardo Fernández contacted Gouda by email for a name for their 3 collections from Cuzco. The much smaller Foster specimen has been chosen for the holotype because it was collected at anthesis. This specimen seems to be slightly more bulbose than the comparatively utriculate Porter et al. collections. The taller plants of the Porter et all. collections are from the Dept. of Cuzco and are collected not more than 50 km apart of each other, but the Foster collection is 500 km to the North-East in the Dept. of Pasco. All collections are from the damp montane forest at the Amazonian side of the main ridge of the Andes, Peru.
Habitat and distribution: misty, cloudy and cool montane forest at the Amazonian side of the Andes of Dept. Pasco to Dept. Cuzco, Peru (not yet known from Dept. Junin but probably there), betweent about 2100-3000 m. flowers). —SeeGouda & Manzanares 2008
