plant flowering to 50 cm high. leaves densely rosulate; sheath wholly covered, broad, 15 mm long; blade recurved, 7 cm long, 12 mm wide, soon glabrous above, covered beneath with appressed whitish scales, very laxly serrate with nearly straight slender yellow spines 1.5 mm long. inflorescence: peduncle lateral, straight, 3 mm in diameter, white lepidote, soon glabrous; peduncle bracts ovate, acuminate, entire, much shorter than the internodes; fertile part simple, few-flowered, 7 cm long, lax at base, sparsely white lepidote when young; floral bracts ovate, acuminate, shorter than the sepals, entire. flowers subsessile; sepals broadly ovate, rounded at apex and cucullate, 4 mm long; ecarinate; petals erect, 8 mm long, orange, the blades elliptic, ecarinate. stamens included, the filaments free; stigmas sessile.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.