Aechmea recurvata is a variable tough cold hardy species from the bromeliad family. It is a plant from Chile and Uruguay where I originally acquired seeds to grow our own stock plants. It can grow to a height of 60 cm but usually smaller and makes an excellent and unusual house plant. The purple flowered inflorescence protrude above the foliage and are quite spectacular, up to 20 cm tall and bearing different tints of red. The foliage consists of 30 cm long rigid and curving leaves that turn a spectacular red in the centre while it is in flower - absolutely stunning as you can see in the picture taken from our own flowering plants.
The ends of the leaves and the sides are a bit spiky the only slight negative about this plant, and they do need full but not burning sunshine when coming into flower to get the best colouration and water sparingly.
