plant flowering over 6 dm high. leaves probably rosulate; to 45 cm long, obscurely punctulate-lepidote throughout; sheath broadly elliptic, scarcely distinct, ca 10 cm long, dark castaneous above, concolorous with the blades beneath; blade narrowly triangular; long-attenuate, 5 cm wide, pale green striated or marmorated dark purple-black (! hutchison). inflorescence: peduncle slightly curved but probably ascending, 6 mm in diameter, glabrous; pedunclebracts suberect, subfoliaceous, their bases exceeding the internodes but not altogether covering them; fertile part once-branched, 24 cm long, dense at apex, lax below; primary bracts ovate, the lowest slightly shorter than the reduced axillary spikes but with their blades exceeding them, the upper bladeless and less than half as long as the spikes; spikes subsessile with 1–2 sterile bracts at base, the upper spikes lanceolate, acute, strongly complanate, 7–8 cm long, 2 cm wide (fruiting), 8–9-flowered; floral bracts imbricate and concealing the rachis, elliptic, acute, carinate and slightly incurved toward apex, 25 mm long, equaling the sepals, coriaceous, even, glabrous. flowers subsessile; sepals linear-oblanceolate, broadly acute, 24 mm long, thin, nerved, obscurely lepidote, the abaxial free, the adaxial connate for 6 mm, carinate.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.