plant climbing; stem over 1 m long, 5 mm in diameter, covered by the leaf-sheaths. leaves dimorphic, some with broad blades, others bladeless with the petiole modified into a slender serrate spine, sheaths uniform, suborbicular, 1 cm long, dark castaneous except for the green apex and margins, sparsely pale-lepidote, pectinate-serrate near the apex, entire below; petioles 5 cm long, 5 mm wide, channeled, the lower half laxly serrate with slender black spines 1.5 mm long; blade elliptic, acurninate at both ends, 15–20 cm long, 45 mm wide, entire, mottled with dark green, sparsely white-flocculose, soon glabrous. inflorescence: peduncle elongate, slender, soon glabrous; peduncle bracts erect, all but the highest exceeding the internodes, the lower ones like the leaf-blades, the upper lance-ovate and much smaller; fertile part erect, simple, lax, many-flowered, 35 cm long, finely whitefloccose; floral bracts lance-ovate, acuminate, much shorter than the pedicels. flowers: pedicel spreading, slender, 20 mm long; sepals narrowly triangular, abruptly acute, 25 mm long, ecarinate; petals 10 cm long, white, naked. pistil: ovary slenderly fusiform, 4/5 superior; ovules caudate.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.