Pitcairnia carnea Beer

Pitcairnia carnea Beer, Oesterr. Bot. Zeits. 8: 182. 1858
Puya carnea Regcl, Cat. PI. Hort. Aksak. 117. I860. Hepetis carnea Mez, in DC. Monog. Phan. 9: 973. 1896.
Stcmlcss; flowering plant 6 dm. high; leaves all alike, many, densely fasciculate, persistent, narrowed lictwccn sheath and blade hut not actually pi'tiolatc; sheaths broadly triangularovate, entire, brown at the ba.sc; blades linear, filiform-acuminate, 6 duL long, 13 mm. wide, entire except for a few teeth just above the sheath, densely white-lepidote below, glabrous above at maturity; scape well developed, straight, lepidote, becoming glabrous; scape-bracts strict, narrowly lance-triangular, acuminate, pungent, lepidote, becoming glabrous, the upper ones equaling or slightly shorter than the internodes; inflorescence about equaling the leaves, racemose, cylindric, 2 dm. long, 7 cm. in diameter, white-floccose ; floral bracts lanceolate, acuminate, equaling or exceeding the pedicels, the lower ones 18 mm. long; flowers erect, about 55 mm. long; pedicels slender, erect, 10-15 mm. long; sepals sublinear, filiform-acuminate, 34 mm. long, 4 mm. wide, often uncinate, ecarinate; petals 52 mm. long, red, strongly recurved after anthesis, each with a single large coarsely toothed scale at the base; stamens slightly longer than the petals; anthers 8 mm. long; ovary ovoid, three-fourths superior; ovules long-caudate.
Type locality: "Veragnu" [Veraguas, Panama]; described from cultivation. Distribution: Known only from the type collection.