The only fixed points of reference seems to be the botanical description by Pereira and Penna 1985 (see below), an unpublished sketch (see below), and Harry Luther's drawing in JBS 1992. None of these refer to a red centre at anthesis.
It appears there may be two plants by this name in Australia, and possibly world wide !
The originally described plant may have quite a bit of variability, but what we are seeing seems to go beyond this.
Harry Luther has several plants with slight variability such as more or less red center. Ruby Ryde purchased a live plant in the '80s (as N. sapiatibensis) from an amateur collector in the Morro Sapiatiba region, which apparently agrees with the description - a small/medium plant, very stoloniferous, fairly upright, predominantly dull tan, insignificant thorns, minor colour change on leaf tips. However Ruby also later purchased seed from "a USA Seed bank" called N. scandens which grew to be "rather different".
The BSA book "Growing Bromeliads" briefly describes as "..produces exceptionally long stolons. It is not noted for its bright colour; its leaves are grey, but it should make a good subject for tree culture."
There was a hybrid between N. scandens and ? available in this time frame, and possibly this is the 2nd Australian plant.
The only fixed points of reference seems to be the botanical description by Pereira and Penna 1985 (see below), an unpublished sketch (see below), and Harry Luther's drawing in JBS 1992. None of these refer to a red centre at anthesis.
During the 1980 World Bromeliad Conference in Orlando, Florida, Luiz Correia de Araujo introduced into North American horticulture an interesting, very stoloniferous Neoregelia species. Recognizing it as an undescribed species, the present author applied the provisional epithet "scandens" with full intention of validating the name "eventually."
The plants multiplied like rabbits, attained wide distribution in cultivation as Neoregelia "scandens" and "eventually" dragged on for a decade. Unknown to me, the Brazilian botanists Pereira and Penna described this species as new in Boletim no.62 (February 1985) of the Museu Botanico Municipal, Curitiba, and named it Neoregelia sapiatibensis. I have only recently obtained a copy of this publication and now urge all readers to change the tags on their Neoregelia "scandens" to N. sapiatibensis, an alteration possibly requiring a label upgrade to 6-inch size.
Plant flowering ca. 40cm high, stoloniferous, stolons ca. 40cm long,
Leaves many, ca. 35cm long, ligulate, rigid, forming a rosulate inflated base funnelform, 12cm long,
Sheath sub-elliptic, ca.8cm long, max. width 5cm, both sides whitish, punctate brown lepidote,
Blades sub-linear ca. 27cm long, max width ca. 4cm, tip acute apiculate, both sides green or reddish, upper side inconspicuous lepidote, underneath dense punctulate white lepidote, margins dense spined, spines ca. 1mm long, pointing upwards, dark purple, 3mm apart.
Scape 30mm long, 7mm diam.,
Scape bracts foliaceous, toothed, long apiculate, white, both sides punctate brown lepidote,
Involucral bracts 35mm long, ovate, acute, apiculate, membranaceous, green or reddish, entire, closely nerved,
Inflorescence simple, sub-globose, top flattened, 30mm diam.,
Floral bracts narrow lanceolate, 30mm long, 8mm wide, green or reddish, entire, towards the tip slightly keeled, tip spined, equalling the middle of the sepal.
Flowers with pedicel 40-50mm long,
Pedicel 5-10mm long, white.
Sepal slightly asymmetric, 20mm long, lanceolate, short acuminate, joined for 2mm, glabrous, middle bright red, above green.
Petal 32mm long, 3mm joined, blades 10mm long, ovate, acute, violet, spreading at anthesis,
Stamens 20mm long, Filament flattened, joined to petal for 6mm, white, Anthers lanceolate, 4mm long, apiculate, base blunt arrow shaped, dorsifixed above the base.
Ovary cylindric, 10mm long, white, Epigynous tube 1.5mm long, Placenta joined at the middle of the loculus, Ovules obtuse.
Type State of Rio de Janeiro, Barra de Sao Joao, leg. Luiz K Correia de Araujo no 40 26/9/1982 Holotype HB; Sao Pedro Aldeia, Morro Sapiatiba 300msm., leg Elton M C Leme no. 444, 23/2/1983. Paratype HB
Differs from N. farinosa in
Floral bracts much smaller, 30mm compared with 45mm.
Pedicels shorter , 5-10mm compered to 16mm.
Sepals short acuminate almost symmetric.
Leaf sheaths narrow elliptic not broad elliptic ovate, green not purple brown.