Comments: Orthophytum roseum was described as a new species morphologically related to O. burle-marxii, differing by the size of vegetative and reproductive characters, however, according to Louzada and Wanderley (2010), the dimensions cited in the protologue of O. roseum as diagnostic overlap with those of O. burle-marxii, justifying the synonymization of O. roseum under O. burle-marxii.

Orthophytum burle-marxii L B Smith & Read, J Bromeliad Soc 29: 164-165. 1979. In Louzada thesis 2008 - Note no variety seabrae because the writer only deals with species!
Type: BRASIL. Bahia: Bogner 1311 (Holotype: US! imagem).
Translated by Derek Butcher
Description: Herbs large rupicolous, stoloniferous; stem short, ca. 2.5 x 4 cm.
Leaves numerous, densely interwoven, concave, patent to arched, suberect when young, 13.5-55.5 cm long;
Sheath pale green, triangular, wider at base, 1.0-3.0 x l-4 cm, glabrous on both faces, rarely sparsely lepidote, spinescent margins, spines larger towards the tip, 0.5-l mm long;
Blade strongly coriaceous, thick, concave, grey, intense red at the base, linear-triangular, 12.8-53 x 1.5-2.5 cm, adaxial face with base glabrous, abaxial face densely lepidote, spinescent margins, antrorse spines, l-2 mm long, tip mucronate.
Inflorescence sessile, multiflowered, compound, branched at the outer portions, branches with two or three flowers, in the direction of the centre of the rosette without branches;
Involucral bracts completely red, triangular to triangular-lanceolate, 2.2-5.5 x l-6 cm long, sparsely lepidote towards the tip, spinescent margins, tip acuminata to mucronulate, rarely mucronate; see drawing.
Floral bracts, symmetric, subcoriaceous, red, triangular 1.5-4.8 x 0.8-3.7 cm, glabrous, the margins spinescent, tip mucronulate.
Sepals red, slightly asymmetric, carinate, narrow triangular, ca. 2 x 0.4-0.6 cm, sparsely lepidote, entire margins, tip acuminate to mucronulate.
Petals white, symmetric, linear-spatulate, 1.8-2.5 x 0.6 cm, entire margins, tip subacute, petal appendages saciform, lacerate, ca. 7 mm from the base of the petals, lateral calluses evident on the stamens.
Epigynous tube ca. 2 mm long.
Stamens of the first whorl adnate to the petals, the portion from from the filament ca. 0.5 cm long, the second whorl forming a ring at the base of the corolla, ca. 1.4 cm, anther ea. 4.5 mm.
Ovary trigonous, winged, style ca. 2 cm long, numerous ovules.
Fruits and seeds not seen.
Distribution and habitat - BRAZIL, Bahia: Lencois and Morro do Chapeu. Inhabits campos rupestres between 900 and 1,400 m.s.m., as a rupicole, inhabiting dry places prone to bushfires.
Phenology: Flowers in December and January.
Specimens examined: BRASIL. BAHIA: LENCOIS, Morro da Chapadinha, Chapadinha, 22.xi.1994, Franca et al. 1257 (SP); Serra Larga, l9.xii.1984, Lewis et al. CFCR 7268 (RB); Rio Mucugesinho, 2l.xii.l98l, Carvalho et al. 1065 (RB); 10.xii.2003, Wanderley & Conceicao 2371 (SP); 08.i.2003 Wanderley & Conceicao 2379 (SP); 14.i.2006, Wanderley et al. 2530 (SP); Morro da Chapadinha, 22.xi.l994, Meio et al. 1257 (CEPEC); Ribeirao do Meio, 08.i.2003, Wanderley & Conceicao 2368 (SP); 17.xii.2006 Louzada & Moreira 45 (SP); Mirante, 13.i.2006, Louzada & Moreira 11 (SP). MORRO DO CHAPEU, Cachoeira do Ferro Doido, 27.x.1978 Martinelli 5335 (RB).

Orthophytum burle-marxii along with O. heleniceae are the species that have larger plants among the taxa studied. Leaf blades on O. burle-marxii are extremely coriaceous, with floral bracts and sepals red, forming an intense red halo and glabrous in the base of the rosette. This halo, although green, also occurs in O. heleniceae, distinguishing these two species from O. albopictum, which has a white woolly halo, formed by the presence of scales densely arranged. The colour of the leaves in O. burle-marxii and O. albopictum facilitates the recognition when alive, being distinguished by distribution of foliar scales, where the adaxial face has a glabrous base and abaxial face is densely lepidote for O. burle-marxii, while in O. albopictum the leaves are glabrous on the adaxial face. However, as these colour characteristics are not preserved in herbarium collections, using the same detail is more appropriate in live collections in the fertile period.
Orthophytum burle-marxii occurs in campos rupestres in the municipalities of Lencois and Morro do Chapeu, in Chapada Diamantina. It is found in xeric environments, near or not near rivers, and in areas subject to fires.

Orthophytum burle-marxii L.B.Smith & R.W.Read, J Brom. Soc. 29(4): 164. 1979
Ab 0. navioide (L.B.Smith) L.B.Smith, cui valde affinis, foliorum laminis subtus densissime albo-lepidotis, bracteis florigeris integerrimis differt.
(Extra detail from Rauh, Trop Subtrop Pflanz. 52: 77-82. 1985 shown in brackets.)
LEAVES numerous, densely rosulate, 2(3)dm long;
blades narrowly triangular, to 15(20)mm wide, subdensely white-lepidote above, completely covered beneath, laxly serrulate. (small teeth. Inner rosette leaves dark carmine-red)
INFLORESCENCE capitate, compound, sunk in the center of the rosette; (almost always bipinnate)
primary bracts broadly triangular, covering few-flowered flat fascicles, subentire. (dark carmine red)
FLORAL BRACTS narrowly triangular, exceeded by the sepals, entire, laxly lepidote. (mostly longer than the sepals)
SEPALS lanceolate, acute, 17 mm long, lepidote, the posterior ones alate-carinate;
petals 24 mm long, bearing 2 vase-shaped scales well above the base; (to 30mm long with blunt spreading platte)
ovary strongly-flattened; placentae subapical; ovules obtuse.
BRAZIL: Cultivated in Munich, Germany, in 1978 from material received from R. Burle-Marx, presumably collected in Bahia in 1965, J.Bogner 1311 (holotype US).

Orthophytum burle-marxii L. B. SMITH & R. W. READ var. seabrae Rauh, Trop Subtrop Pflanz. 52: 77-82. 1985. As at 2016 not accepted as a variety – see above.
A typo var. burle-marxii differt rosulis minoribus suberectis, foliis angustioribus argenteo-canis, foliis interioribus minus intense coloratis et inflorescentiis minoribus somplicibus vel dense bipinnatus.
Holotypus: RAUH 56497a (6. 10. 1981), in herb. inst. hot. system. univ. heidelb. (HEID), in spiritu alcoholico conservatur.
Habitat et distributio: Saxicola prope locum typi apud Seabra, Bahia (Brasilia).
Leaf blades – to 20cm long, 1cm wide
Leaf spines – denser and larger
Inner rosette leaves – shiny red and for that reason less colourful than the type.
Floral bracts – much shorter than the sepals.
Petals – to 20mm long, platte almost erect, short tipped.

Detail from Flora of Pico das Almas 655. 1995
Orthophytum burle-marxii L.B. Sm. & Read, J. Bromeliad Soc. 29(4):164 (1979).
Stemless herb forming a ~ flattened rosette 14-75 cm diam:
Leaves numerous, 5-37 cm long, adaxially usually cream or pale green at the base, red centrally and dark red at apex, abaxially ~ grey-green;
sheath very short and indistinct, margins densely serrulate;
blade 1-1.4 cm wide at base, gradually and long acuminate to fine tip, ~ densely lepidote, margins ~ densely to ~ distantly armed with spreading, forward-curved or retrorse spines, 1-3 mm long.
Inflorescence sunken into centre of leaf rosette, capitate, many-flowered;
scape lacking;
floral bracts 1-2 cm long x 0.5-1 cm wide at base, ovoid, acuminate, cochleate, carinate, greenish- or greyish-cream, with spiny margins.
Flowers sessile.
Sepals free, l.1-1.3 cm long x c. 0.35 cm wide, narrowly triangular.
Corolla inserted with stamens on very short epigynous tube, white, with appendices in the lower third of the petal.
Anthers yellow to cream.
Ovary inferior. Fig.41A-C, p.655.
On rocks. Mun. Rio de Contas: Lower N slopes of the Pico das Almas, c. 25 km WNW of the town of Rio de Contas. 1500 m. Harley et al. 15413; Pico das Almas. Vertente leste. Trilha Faz. Silvina-Queiroz. 1350-1450 m. Harley et al. 25766; Pico das Almas. Vertente leste. Trilha Faz. Silvina-Queiroz. 1350-1450 m. Harley et al. 25779; Pico das Almas. Vertente leste. Margem leste do Campo do Queiroz. 1500 m. Harley et al. 26225.

Orthophytum roseum Leme, J Brom Soc 60(2): 66-70. 2010.
Type: Brazil. Bahia State, Chapada Diamantina, Palmeira, near Caete-Acu, Riachinho, leg. R.de Oliveira s. n., fl. cult. Febr. 2008, E.Leme 3439 (Holotype: HB; Isotype: RB).
A O. burle-marxii L.B.Sm. & Read, cui affinis, laminis foliorum basi angustioribus (1.3-1.5 cm vs. 1.5-2.5 cm wide), marginibus spinis brevioribus (0.5-1 mm vs. 1-2 mm long), bracteis floriferis roseis (vs. rubris), sepalis minoribus (11-12 x 3.5-4 mm vs. 17-20 x 4-6 mm), roseis (vs. rubris), petalis etiam minoribus (15-16 x 4 vs. 18-25 x 6 mm long), antheris brevioribus (ca. 3 mm vs. 4.5 mm long) differt.
Plant saxicolous, stemless, propagating by short basal shoots.
Leaves ca. 36 in number, spreading, coriaceous, forming a dense round rosette;
sheaths inconspicuous but broader than the blades, very densely spinulose, inconspicuously and sparsely punctulate-lepidote, greenish-white toward the base;
blades narrowly sublinear-triangular, long acuminate-caudate, 25-40 cm long, 1.3-1.5 cm wide at base, not at all canaliculate, ca. 2 mm thick near the base, green throughout before anthesis and rose at base at anthesis, opaque, abaxially densely and coarsely white-lepidote with trichomes slightly obscuring leaf color, adaxially subdensely to sparsely and inconspicuously white-lepidote, margins densely to sparsely spinulose, spines subtriangular-uncinate, antrorse, yellowish, 0.5-1 mm long, 2-7 mm apart.
Inflorescence bipinnate in its outer portion, simple in its central portion, subumbellate, sessile, densely many-flowered, ca. 4 cm in diameter;
primary bracts the outer ones foliaceous, rose near the base and green toward the apex, the inner ones narrowly subtriangular, ca. 40 x 18 mm, distinctly exceeding the fascicles, suberect, reddish-rose and inconspicuously white-lepidote toward the apex and whitish-green and glabrous at base, margins densely to sparsely and inconspicuously spinulose, spines to 0.5 mm in length;
fascicles ca. 14 in number, flabellate, complanate, shortly pedunculate, 23 x 11-15 mm (excluding the petals), 2- to 3-flowered;
floral bracts triangular, rose toward the apex, inconspicuously and sparsely pilose-glandulose, triangular, acuminate, those of the fascicles distinctly carinate, margins densely and inconspicuously spinulose, c. 20 x 10 mm, about equaling the sepals, thinly coriaceous toward apex and membranous near the base, erect;
Flowers 2l-24 mm long (including the petals), sessile, densely arranged, odorless;
sepals subsymmetrical, narrowly lanceolate, acuminate-apiculate, 11-12 x 3.5-4 mm, free, entire, rose, inconspicuously and sparsely pilose-glandulose, the posterior ones alate-carinate, the anterior one carinate at least at base;
petals narrowly subspatulate, apex rounded and slightly emarginated to remotely apiculate, 15-16 x 4 mm, free, white, at anthesis erect except for the subspreading distal portion, bearing 2 laminate, cupulate, obtuse, irregularly crenulate, upwardly to downwardly oriented appendages 5-6 mm above the base, as well as 2 conspicuous longitudinal callosities slightly shorter than the anthers;
filaments terete, white, the antepetalous ca.7 mm long, adnate to the petals for 5-6 mm, the antesepalous ones ca.11 mm long, free;
anthers ca. 3 mm long, base obtuse, apex obtuse and minutely apiculate, fixed at 1/3 of its length above the base;
stigma conduplicate, blades ca. 1 mm long, erect, margins remotely crenulate;
Ovary ca. 6 mm long, ca. 4.5 mm in diameter at apex, trigonous, greenish-white, glabrous;
Epigynous tube crateriform, ca. 1 mm long;
placentation median to apical;
ovules obtuse.
Fruits unknown.

Orthophytum roseum is closely related to O. burle-marxii, differing by narrower leaf blades (1.3-1.5 cm vs. 1.5-2.5 cm wide) and shorter marginal spines (0.5-1 mm vs. 1-2 mm long). The adaxtal surface of the leaf blades of O. roseum is subdensely to sparsely and inconspicuously white-lepidote and the floral bracts are rose, as well as the sepals, inspiring its name. In contrast, the photographs provided in the protologue of O. burle-marxii show a densely lepidote-leafed specimen with the basal potion of the inner leaves and the primary bracts bright red, as well as the floral bracts and sepals (Smith & Read, 1979). Other differences of the new species are the smaller sepals (11-12 x 3.5-4 mm vs. 17-20 x 4-6 mm), petals (15-16 x 4 mm vs. 18-25 x 6 mm long), and anthers (ca. 3 mm vs. ca. 4.5 mm long).
This new species was found growing as a rupicolous in vertical sandstones rocks, along rivers, in the "Campos Rupestres" of Caete-Acu, Palmeiras, in more or less shaded places. It is quite prolific vegetatively, forming dense clumps, which is also observed in cultivation.