Plant nearly 1.5 m tall, caulescent.
Caudex massive, branched, prostrate, 30-50 cm long, covered with dry and persistent sheaths of leaf bases.
Leaves 15-20, in a compact rosette, with a broadly ovate, dark castaneous sheath, 4-4.5 cm wide;
blades 50-60 cm long at the maximum, 2.5 cm wide, arching, laxly serrate with 1-cm long, uncinate, antrorse and retrorse spines;
cinereous foliar scales conspicuous, covering upper one third of the sheath, abaxial and adaxial surfaces of blades and bases of spines;
scale density higher along blade margins and spine bases.
Scape erect, to 45 cm tall, 1-2 cm in diameter, scape bracts reflexed, partly deciduous at maturity, the lower ones narrowly triangular, acuminate, coarsely serrate, the upper ones broadly lanceolate, entire.
Inflorescence compound, bipinnate, nearly 60 cm long, lateral branches to 20, about 35 cm long, with stalk nearly 2 cm, floriferous through the proximal one third to one half, and sterile with numerous reduced bracts for the remainder of the distal portion of the branch;
primary axis and branches densely tomentose.
Primary bracts broadly ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, entire, coriaceous, strongly nerved, covering from nearly one third to more than one half of the lateral branches, persistently lanate.
Floral bracts broadly ovate, acuminate, subcoriaceous, sparsely tomentose, almost equalling the sepals.
Pedicels to 1 cm long, tomentose-lepidote.
Sepals elliptic to lanceolate, obtuse, 1.5-2 cm long, naked, sulfur yellow.
Stamens included.
Capsules globose, enclosed by the sepals.
Seed Puya hamata type (broadly triangular) 2-3 mm in size.
Type. Chile. Region IV (La Serena): Prov. Elqui, about 60 km north of La Serena, on the way to Puerta Totorallilo, near El Oliva, Isla Tilago, 29deg 16' S, 71deg 17' W; alt. 50 m; May 22, 1987, G. S. and Usha Varadarajan, A. Penaloza, and A. Flores 1481 (holotype, GH; isotypes MO, WS).

Puya gilmartinii appears to be closely related to two other Chilean species, P. boliviensis and P. chilensis. These species share reflexed scape bracts, inflorescence type, elliptic-lanceolate sepals, elliptic petals, and sepals completely enclosing the capsules. In addition, the new species displays some characters in common with one species that are different from the other (Tables 1 & 2). Tables 3 and 4 list characters that distinguish P. gilmartinii from P. boliviensis and P. chilensis.
Puya gilmartinii exhibits a saxicolous habit in a small area in the coastal desert (fig. 6). The populations are limited to about twenty individuals. Although P. chilensis grows in the same general area as P. gilmartinii, populations of these taxa are not intermingled. The suite of similarities and differences in morphological traits may suggest an instance of hybridization involving P. boliviensis, P. chilensis, and P. gilmartinii. Their geographic distributions (Varadarajan 1989) further support the idea of hybridization in the past. This suggestion, however, is not to cast doubt on the identity, validity, or taxonomic rank of the new species.
We name this new Puya in memory of Dr. Amy Jean Gilmartin's significant research contributions to the bromeliad family.