Basionym: Vriesea brasiliana L.B. SMITH, Arq. Bot. Estado Sao Paulo II. 1: 115, 1943.
TYPE: Brazil. Rio de Janeiro: Meio da Serra, Serra dos Orgaos, SMITH & BRADE 2295 (holotype, GH not seen; photo US; isotypes B, S not seen).

Desc from S&D
246. Vriesea brasiliana L. B. Smith, Arq. Bot. S. Paulo II. 1: 115, pI. 119. 1943. Fig 423 A-D.
Vriesea regina sensu Mez in Martius, FI. Bras. 3(3): 569. 1894; in part, not as to type.

Plant flowering about 2 m high; stem erect, very stout, sometimes elongate.
Leaves many in a funnelform rosette, to over 1m long, nearly straight; blades ligulate, attenuate, 8-18 cm wide, densely and minutely lepidote beneath, smooth and glabrous above, green.
Scape erect, very stout; scape-bracts divergent but densely imbricate, subfoliaceous, large.
Inflorescence sublaxly bipinnate, much branched; primary bracts acuminate from a broadly ovate base, much shorter than the branches;
Branches spreading or decurved, to 6 dm long; slightly sigmoid with the apex curved upward, usually many-flowered with several sterile bracts at base, more or less geniculate.
Floral bracts ovate, acute, to 35 mm long, 3-4 times as long as the internodes, usually about half as long as the sepals, carinate, pale green;
Flowers divergent, exposing the rhachis, distichous or somewhat upwardly secund; Pedicels obconic, stout, ca 1 cm long.
Sepals lanceolate, acute, to 35 mm long;
Petals linear, acute, 5 cm or longer, yellow, bearing 2 large obtuse scales at base, exceeding the stamens.
Capsule stout, acuminate, 5 cm long.
Type. L. B. Smith & Brade 2295 (holotype GH, isotypes B, S), Meio da Serra, Serra dos Orgaos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 7 Apr 1929.
DISTRIBUTION. On cliffs, ca 500 m alt, Rio. de Janeiro and Guanabara, Brazil. BRAZIL. RIO DE JANEIRO: Teresopolis, Glaziou 11685 (GH, K); Serra da Estrella, 5 Mar 1967, E. Pereira & Braga 10560 (HB, US). GUANABARA: Pico da Tijuca, 27 Nov 1962, Castellanos 23497 (Centro Pesq. Rio).