Neoregelia watersiana Leme was found by Elton M. C. Leme, Peter Waters and Rafael de Oliveira in October 2009, during an expedition to a mountainous region, in the county of Santa Maria Madalena, northern Rio de Janeiro state, where the State Parque of Desengano is located. The park covers an area of 22,400 hectares (86 square miles) and is characterised by sharp ridge tops, sugar loaves, hills, culverts and slopes up to 75 degrees of tilt with staggered heights: Desengano Peak, at 1761 metres, Pico Sao Mateus 1576 metres, and the Pedra Agulha, 1080 metres. This preserve is valuable and attractive for the natural scenery, including many rivers and waterfalls. Many watercourses arising in these highlands provide the water supply to the main villages in the municipalities of St. Maria Madalena and Sao Fidelis. Temperatures range between 6[degrees] and 35[degrees]C.

N. watersiana lives in the canopy of the hygrophilous (water-loving) Atlantic Forest within the park, forming dense clumps on the taller trees, at about 1056 m elevation. This species was formally described in Leme & Kollmann (2013). Here it is introduced to our readers for the first time.

The following detailed description of Neoregelia watersiana and discussion of similar species was prepared by Elton Leme.

Plants epiphytic, propagating by basal shoots. Leaves ca. 12 in number, coriaceous, arcuate to spreading-recurved at anthesis, forming at the base a crateriform rosette; sheaths broadly elliptic to suborbicular, subdensely whitish lepidote on both sides, green toward the apex and whitish near the base, subcoriaceous, elliptic,...