Plant to 15 cm tall. Leaves 25 cm long, 1.5 cm wide, broadly strap-shaped, arching, recurved, purplish or purplish-brown, sparsely white scaly below, white scaly in irregular lines above to create a zebra striped appearance. Inflorescence on an arching scape 30-40 cms tall, white scaly. Flowers mostly stalkless; sepals whitish to pale green; petals 15 mm long, white.
Eastern Brazil (known only from a very small area on rocky outcrops)
This species is distinguished from all other Orthophytum by the zebra-like stripes on the purplish-brown leaves.
O. saxicola (Ule) L.B. Sm. from eastern Brazil is a plant flowering to 13 cm high, widely stoloniferous. Leaves 15-20 in a sub-erect rosette 3-6 cm long, 1-1.5 cm wide; laxly serrate with spines 2-3 mm long. Inflorescence stalkless or with short scape, compact, few-flowered; floral bracts leaf-like; sepals to 14 mm long, green; petals white; stamens protruding. This plant clumps quickly and soon covers the wide shallow pot it is usually planted in.
Source: (2005). Bromeliaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.