Light green ligulate leaves with large black spines. Scape erect, coral red, 40 cm long. Inflorescence to 80 cm long, open. Flowers have lavender petals and apple green ovaries. Fruit dark purple. The variety extensa is the most common and most outstanding.
Eastern Brazil
P. kermesiana Koch from eastern Brazil has leaves about 12, broad, 75 cm long, 5 cm wide forming an utricular rosette. Scape erect. Inflorescence a dense oblong panicle, 15-20 cm long, with large rose bracts. Flowers with blue petals. This is the smallest and least common of the three species described and requires more protection in winter.
P. leptantha Harms from eastern Brazil grows to 1 m or more tall. Leaves about 12 in a stiff rosette, green, with conspicuous spines and a stout terminal spine. Inflorescence erect, composed of small clusters each containing many flowers with yellow petals and orange-yellow ovaries.
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.