NOTES from Gilmartin 1972:
There seem to be three forms of T. complanata that blend into one another;
1) a coastal form represented by smaller plants with floral bracts and sepals having their apices narrowly acute, and sepals posteriorly united;
2) a middle altitude form represented by larger plants, with leaves long and broad, sepals ovate-elliptic;
3) a very high altitude form, a smaller plant with narrow leaves, sepals free and tending to be oblong and obtuse.
Examples of form 1) are;: Eggers 14055 (US), Rauh, Hirsch E 238 (US) AJG 644 (US) and . AJG 682 (US).
Examples of form 2) are: AJG 798 (US), Hitchcock 21671 (US) Camp E, 1753 (US), AJG 787 (US), Foster 2649 (US).
Examples of form 3) are: Camp E 3957A and 13 (US), Hitchcock 21562 (US), Schimpff 887 (US), Barclay and Juajibioy 8373 (US), and Rimbach 282 (US).

Although these three different forms can be recognized, no attempt here is made to describe them as separate taxa.
From the observations of the specimens seen, it appears likely that the so-called simple axial inflorescences of T. complanata are actually spikes of a compound inflorescence with the scape foreshortened so that it never grows to the point of being macroscopically recognizable. In some specimens several "inflorescences" appeared in the same leaf axil as for example with Rivet 687, Schimpff 887 and Camp E 3947. These fascicles of "inflorescences" are probably really spikes with elongate, bracteate stipes. Other specimens, especially the coastal ones, seem to have no more than one "inflorescence," that is, spike, per leaf axil. Support for this idea of a pseudo-simple inflorescence is obtained from the relative lengths of the bracts. In T. complanata what have always been called scape-bracts are often imbricate above but remote below and are approximately all the same length. This is not the usual situation in species of the genus, Tillandsia. Usually scape-bracts are much longer below and imbricate; becoming shorter toward the inflorescence where they may not be imbricate. If we recognize the so-called inflorescences of T. complanata as spikes then the scape-bracts are in reality sterile floral bracts which typically do become closer to one another acropetally. The character of a foreshortened scape is held consistently throughout all forms of Tillandsia complanata that have been observed to date.

Detail from Gouda in Flora of the Guianas 1987
6. Tillandsia complanata Bentham, Bot. Sulph. 173. 1846.
Type: Ecuador, Esmeraldas, Atacames, 1836/39, Sinclair s. n. (holotype K, GH photo). - Plate 3.
Tillandsia axillaris Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W..Indies 597. 1864. Type: Jamaica, without locality, Purdie s. n. (K).
Plant acaulescent, 12-25 cm tall, with a spreading rosette of many pale green leaves, often purple-red streaked or spotted, with (many) inflorescences from the axils of the leaves.
Leaves thin, chartaceous when dry, 16-35 cm long, shorter than to exceeding the spikes;
sheaths ample, but not very distinct, evenly merging into the blades, elliptic, slightly inflated, (5.5-)8.5-15 x (2.5-)4.5-6 cm, brown punctulate- or minutely appressed-lepidote, concolorous pale-green, or in upper part dark purple-red;
blade strongly arching, ligulate or narrowly triangular-ovate, 12-23 x 2.7-3.7 cm, attenuately acute, or obtuse and apiculate, subdensely and minutely appressed-lepidote outside, less so inside.
Inflorescences axillary, simple, 15-40 cm long;
scapes spreading upon the leaves, often decurved, 18-33 cm long, 1-2 mm in diam., glabrous, bracteate, but often partly visible, flat and prophyllate at the base;
scape bracts erect, often remote, membranaceous, linear-lanceolate, the upper ones oblong, apiculate or acutish, mostly shorter than the internodes or slightly exceeding them, glabrous;
spikes oblong to linear, more or less complanate, 3-12 x 0.8-1.2 cm, acute, densely and distichously 3-7(-14)-flowered, with a few sterile bracts at the base and apex;
rachis hidden, flexuous, sharply angled (dry), glabrous;
floral bracts erect, densely imbricate, thin-coriaceous, with even or veined (dry) surface, ovate, 1.4-2.2 cm long, 2-4 times as long as the internodes, much exceeding the sepals, obtuse, ecarinate, glabrous, green, rose to dark¬purple.
Flowers contiguous, sessile;
sepals thin-coriaceous, oblong or lanceolate, 0.8-1.4 cm long, obtuse, posterior ones connate for about 2/3, carinate, strongly incurved at the apex, glabrous;
petals linear spathulate, to 2.5 cm long, the blade subspreading, oblong or lanceolate, rounded, rose, purple or blue;
stamens all alike, somewhat shorter than the petals, exceeding the pistil by half of the anthers, filaments slender and flat, anthers basifixed, sagittate, ca. 4.5 mm long;
ovary slenderly ovoid, evenly tapering, then constricted into the slender style, stigmas linear.
Capsule cylindric (subprismatic), to 4 cm long, about twice as long as the bracts, attenuate, abruptly short-beaked.
Distribution: Greater Antilles, Costa Rica to Bolivia and N. Brazil. Epiphytic in forest, 750-3600 m alt.
13 collections studied. Guyana: Roraima am Abhoiney, E. Ule 8560 (K).
Culture and use: Interesting species because it produces multiple axillary inflorescences and the leaves become purple-red in bloom when grown bright and not too warm, it demands high humidity.