plant large, probably 2 m or more high. leaves 5–7 dm long; blade linear-triangular, pungent, 3 cm wide, laxly spinose-serrate, repand, glabrous and shiny above, densely pale-appressed-lepidote below when young. inflorescence laxly once-branched, subpyramidal, at least 7 dm long and 2–3 dm in diameter, glabrous; primary bracts narrowly ovate, acuminate, many times shorter than the axillary branches, chartaceous, soon deciduous; racemes ascending or spreading, short-stipitate, cylindric, densely many-flowered; rachis strongly flattened throughout; floral bracts lance-oblong, acute, equaling or shorter than the pedicels, brown, membranaceous. flowers spreading; staminate pedicels obconic, 2 mm long; pistillate pedicels 2 mm long, 1.5 mm in diameter, articulate at base, sharply triquetrous, often with intermediate ridges as well; staminate sepals broadly elliptic, obtuse, 1.5 mm long, convex, ecarinate, cucullate; pistillate sepals broadly triangular, acute, 2.5 mm long, carinate; staminate petals broadly elliptic, obtuse or emarginate, 3 mm long, cucullate, pale-yellow; pistillate petals triangular, acuminate, 3 mm long. stamens included. pistil: ovary very slightly inferior, more so in the remnant in the staminate flower; stigmas subsessile. fruits oblong-ellipsoid, triquetrous, 7 mm long; carpels even except for a median ridge; seeds slenderly ellipsoid with a single large triangular wing at the apex.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.