Aechmea romeroi

Native to Colombia and Ecuador, this perennial bromeliad grows on trees in wet Amazonian forests and the eastern Andean foothills. Its broad rosette collects rainwater between the overlapping leaf bases. A curving flower stalk carries flattened side branches with closely overlapping floral bracts, while larger red to orange bracts extend beneath them. The species is listed as Endangered in Colombia, where forest clearing threatens its wild populations. New shoots develop around the parent rosette to continue the clump. Photographed in Ecuador.