plant subacaulescent, flowering 4–5 dm high. leaves 10–12 cm long, usually entire but very rarely with a few teeth; sheath large, suborbicular, almost black; blade narrowly triangular, 2 cm wide, thick, rigid, pungent, glabrous above, covered beneath with cinereous appressed scales. inflorescence: peduncle stout, to 6 mm in diameter, glabrous; peduncle bracts subfoliaceous, the upper ones much shorter than the internodes; fertile part laxly racemose, many-flowered, glabrous; floral bracts narrowly triangular, the lower ones exceeding the pedicels. flowers: pedicel slenderly clavate, spreading, frequently curved upward, to 14 mm long. flowers green; sepals broadly ovate, obtuse, erose, 9 mm long; petals broadly elliptic without a distinct claw, obtuse, 11 mm long, barely exceeding the stamens. stamens: filament free above the very short common tube with the petals. pistil: style simple, short but distinct. fruits ovoid, short-beaked, about equaling.the sepals.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.