plant stemless, often flowering over 1 m high. leaves densely rosulate, 45 cm long, obscurely punctulate-lepidote, light green, sometimes suffused or marked with red or purple; sheath conspicuous, suborbicular; blade ligulate, acute, to 6 cm wide. inflorescence: peduncle erect, glabrous; peduncle bracts foliaceous, densely imbricate and concealing the peduncle, spreading toward apex; fertile part barely or amply twice-branched, pyramidal, red when living, glabrous throughout; primary bracts large and foliaceous, the lower ones exceeding the axillary branches; secondary bracts narrowly lanceolate, slightly shorter than the axillary spikes; spikes lanceolate or elliptic, acute, dense, to 8-flowered but usually much less; floral bracts suberect, 2 to 3 times as long as the internodes but so narrow as to expose the rachis, narrowly elliptic, acute, exceeding the sepals, convex, ecarinate, coriaceous, even or somewhat nerved toward apex. flowers subsessile, 25–30 mm long; sepals linear-lanceolate, acute, 15–20 mm long, coriaceous, even or nerved, ecarinate, subfree; petals violet. stamens and pistil included. fruits cylindric, short-beaked, 3 cm long.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.