Desc in S&D
Leaves many in a dense spreading rosette, 15-30 dm long, not constricted;
sheaths large, broadly triangular, entire or somewhat serrate toward the apex, densely lepidote with elongate coarse dark brown scales;
blades linear, attenuate, pungent, 3-5 cm wide, very minutely appressed-lepidote beneath, densely serrate with stout brown teeth 5-8 mm long.
Scape very short or none.
Inflorescence many-flowered, densely corymbose, surrounded by cinnabar-red inner leaves;
primary bracts like the inner leaves but with shorter blades.
Floral bracts narrowly oblanceolate, attaining the middle of the sepals, entire or sparsely serrate, membranaceous, coarsely lepidote;
Flowers 6-9 cm long; pedicels very short and stout.
Sepals narrowly lanceolate, acute but not mucronate, 3 cm long, erect, free, coarsely brown-lepidote;
petals narrowly lanceolate, to 4 cm long, connate for more than 2 cm, glabrous, fleshy, rose with white base and margins;
ovary triangular-prismatic, densely brown-lepidote.
Fruit fusiform, 8 cm long, 2 cm in diameter.
Type. Karatas foliis altissimis anguistissimis et aculeatis Plumier, Gen. 10, pl. 33. 1703. West Indies.
Distribution. Terrestrial in woods and thickets, 50-1500 m alt, Mexico and the West Indies to Brazil and Ecuador.
MEXICO. Sinaloa: Colomas, 14 Jul 1897, Rose 1658 (GH, US); Concordia, 1926, Ortega 5644 (US). San Luis Potosi: Tanquian, 16 May 1891, Maury 6356 (GH). Nayarit: Compostela, 29 Aug 1957, McVaugh 16536 (MICH, US); 12 Nov 1959, McVaugh & Koelz 493 (MICH). Jalisco: La Cuesta, Talpa de Allende, 19 Nov 1960, McVaugh 21131(MICH, US); Tomatlan, 2 Jan 1970, Llamas s n (ENCB, US). Chiapas: Esperanza, Escuintla, 25 May 1948, Matuda 17877 (MEXU, US); Chiapilla, 3 May 1966, Laughlin 893 (US); Mispilla, Venustiano Carranza, 27 Jul 1967, Ton 2659 (US). Yucatan: Chichankanab, Gaumer 1460 (BM, GH); Libre Union, 1938, Lundel1 7576 (MICH). GUATEMALA. Peten: La Libertad, 24 Apr 1933, Lundell 3005 (MICH). Huehuetenango: Nenton, 1 Jun 1906, Cook 11 (US); Democracia to Chamushu Canyon, 24 Aug 1942, Steyerrnark 51256 (F, GH). Alta Verapaz: Coban, 1941. Standlev 91310 (F). Prostreso: El Rancho, 29 Oct 1946, Clover 9376-A (MICH). BRITISH HONDURAS. Boomtown, O'Neill 8507 (LCU); Manatee River, Belize District, 31 Jan 1931, Bartlett 11312 (MICH, US). HONDURAS. Morazan: El Zamorano, Aug 1960, Pfeifer 1655 (US). PANAMA. Panama: Chepo, Oct 1911, H. Pittier 4701 (US); San Jose Island, Perlas Archipelago, 19 Oct 1944, Johnston 235 (GH). CUBA. Havana: Monte Loma de Coca, 18 May 1914, Ekman 1010 (S); Santa Fe, 2 Feb 1916, Wilson 13939 (NY, US). REPUBLICA DOMINICANA. San Pedro de Macoris, Mar 1913, Rose, Fitch & Russell 4194 (US); Llano Costero, Santo Domingo, 13 Aug 1929, Ekman H-13346 (S). LEEWARD ISLANDS. Guadeloupe: 1893, Duss 3319 (US); 9 May 1937, Stehle 1965 (US); 2814 (US). WINDWARD ISLANDS. Martinique: Case-Pilote, 1884, Duss 994 (NY). COLOMBIA. Magdalena: Santa Marta, 11 Aug 1946, Foster & Smith 1436 (GH). Valle: La Paila, 12 Jul 1853, Holton ISI (NY, PH); Cali, 8 Aug 1968, Barkley & Mullen 38C620 (US). Narino: Mocoa, 25 Nov 1946, Foster 2258 (COL, GH). VENEZUELA. Delta Amacuro: Isla de Burojoida, Dec 1951, Gines 4860 (US). Anzoategui: Rio Leon, Bergantin, 20 Feb 1945, Steyermark 61026 (VEN). Distrito Federal: Caracas, 18 Jan 1921, Bailey 1060 (BH). TRINIDAD. Fendler 838 (BM, NY); St. Ann's, Broadway 5113 (BM, F); 30 Jul 1922, Broadway 5336 (BKL); Southern Watershed Reserve forest, Pittendrigh 1315 (TRIN); Petit Valley, Diego Martin, Aitken 102 (TRIN). TOBAGO. Mount Saint George, 2 Aug 1957, Aitken 235. (US). GUYANA. Demerara: Upper Demerara River, Sep 1887, Jenman 4105 (BRG, K). SURINAME. Mount Wilhelmina, Stahel 369 (U); Oreala, Corantijne River; Pulle 547 (U). ECUADOR. Oro: Portovelo to Zaruma, 1 Sep 1943, Steyermark 54254 (GH). BRAZIL. Maranhao: Ilha de Sao Luiz, 1940, Froes 11967 (NY). Ceara: cultivated, Jul 1934, Brade 13989 (GH). Pernambuco: Goiana, Uzina, Santa Tereza, 15 Jun 1955, Lima 55-2074 (IPA, US); Taquaritinga do Norte, 7deg 53' S, 36deg 00' W, Lima 66-4486 (IPA). Bahia: Jacobina, 17 Jun 1939, Foster 99 (GH). Goias: Weddell 2663 (P); southern Serra Dourada, 48deg 50' S, 13deg 45' W, 20 May 1956, Dawson 14994 (US); Caiaponia, 1 May 1973, Anderson 9547 (NY, US).

Local names. Pinuela (Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia); aguama casuela (Mexico, Sinaloa); cham, chom (Maya in Guatemala); pina (Guatemala); ping-wing (British Honduras); gravata ( Brazil, Pernambuco)

From Grant & Zijlstra in Selbyana 19(1): 102. 1998
Karatas Mill., Gard. Dict. abr. Ed. 4: {unpaged}. 28 Jan 1754, nom. illeg. = Bromelia L., Sp. pl.: 285. 1 Mai 1753.
T.: Bromelia karatas L., Sp. pl.: 285. 1 Mai 1753.
Karatas plumieri E. Morren, Belgique Hort. 22: 131. 1872 (an avowed substitute if the genus Karatas is recognized, but impossible since Bromelia predates Karatas with the same type).
Bromelia plumieri (E. Morren) L.B. Sm., Phytologia 15: 173. 1967, nom. illeg. When Miller established Karatas, he only attributed a single taxon to the genus, "Karatas foliis altissimus, angustissimis & aculeatis" (Plumier in Nova plantarum americanarum genera. 1703). Linnaeus (1753) had previously placed this polynomial into synonymy under the binomial Bromelia karatas. Therefore, if tautonyms were allowed in botanical nomenclature, the correct name for the type of this genus would be 'Karatas karatas'. In order to avoid this, Morren proposed the new name Karatas plumieri. When Smith returned the species to Bromelia, he transferred Morren's new name to Bromelia as Bromelia plumieri. However, B. karatas has priority over this later-named illegitimate substitute. The orthographic variant 'Caratas' has been cited, but it is not a separate generic name. See Smith & Downs (in Fl. Neotrop. 14: 1681. 1979). Karatas is an obligate synonym of Bromelia. "Karatas est nomen Americanarum apud Insulas Vulgare:" {Karatas is the common name used by the Americans in the islands (West Indies). (Plumier in Nova plantarum americanarum genera: 10. 1703.)}
There is still today a small Miskito Indian village on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua named Karata. In the 'Diccionario Miskito-Espagnol, Espagnol-Miskito', by Marx & Heath (1992), the word 'kara' is the name for "Bromelia karatas plumiere", and 'ta' for "cape" or "point". As was explained to JRG in Karata in March 1994 by the local people, the name of their village came from the plant 'kara' that grew on the "point" of their peninsula.

by Proctor & Cedeno-Mald. in Contr. US Nat Herb. 52: 1-415. 2005
Excluded Species
Bromelia plumieri (E. Morren) L. B. Sm., Phytologia 15: 173. 1967, nom. Illeg. (= Bromelia karatas L.). Reported from Puerto Rico by Bello (Anales Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 12: 121. 1883); this is the only record of the species for the island and may have been based on a specimen in cultivation (Britton & P. Wilson, 1923).

From Baker 1889
1. K. Plumieri E. Morren in Belg. Hort. 1872, 181; Antoine Brom. 35, t. 21-22 (M.D.).
Bromelia Karatas Linn. (Plum. Amer. Gen. T. 33); Jacq. Amer. Pict. t. 260, fig. 24; Hort. Vind. i. t. 32-33, iii. t. 74,
Nidularium Karatas Lemaire.
Acaulescent. Leaves 30-40 in a dense rosette, rigid, spreading, ensiform, 4-8 ft. long, 1.5-2 in. broad low down, narrowed gradually to the tip, green and glabrous on the face, persistently white-lepidote and finely lineate on the back, armed with large pungent hooked marginal prickles. Flowers about 50 in a dense sessile central capitulum, at first 3-4 in. finally 6-8 in. diam., surrounded by reduced ensiform inner leaves tinged red; flower-bracts scariose, oblanceolate, 2.5-3 in long. Ovary cylindrical-trigonous, 1.5 in long, clothed, like the bracts and sepals, with loose brown tomentum; sepals linear, permanently erect, an inch long. Petals reddish, glabrous, exserted 1/2-1/3 in. beyond the tip of the sepals, united in a tube towards the base. Fruit 3-4 in. long, 1 in. diam., pale yellow, with an eatable white pulp, tapering from the middle to both ends.
Seeds globose, dull brown, vertically compressed, 1/6 in. diam.

Hab. Tropical America, especially the West Indies. First noticed by Morison in 1680. There are two good figures in Plumier's unpublished series and a specimen from Jacquin at the British Museum. It is fully described by Hughes, in his 'Natural History of the Island of Barbados,' published in 1750, p. 232, under the name of "The Pen-gwyn. Latin Karatas." There are also two good figures in Plumier's Bot. Amer. inedit., vol. Iii. t. 42-43 (1689-1697). Here belong also the Caraguata Acanga of Piso, Hist. Nat. Bras. 88 (1648), and Mexocotl seu Mangulei of Morison's Hist. Plant. sect. iv. t. 22 (1680), the two latter cited as synonyms under Bromelia Acanga by Linnaeus. Mr. Jenman tells me it is called "Karwata" by the Indians of Demarara. Described mainly from a plant that flowered at Kew in the autumn of 1887. K. Lagopus E. Morren, inedit. M.D.) seems to be a form of K. Plumieri.