plant stemless, flowering 25–30 cm high. leaves suberect, 15–22 cm long, covered with appressed cinereous brown-centered scales; sheath broadly ovate, 6–9 cm long, castaneous; blade narrowly triangular, 15 mm wide. inflorescence: peduncle erect, slender; peduncle bracts imbricate, foliaceous; fertile part once-branched, ovoid, dense at apex, usually lax below, bright red; primary bracts broadly ovate, lepidote, the lower exceeding the spikes at least by their caudate blades; spikes subsessile, lanceolate, 25–35 mm long, complanate, 5–6-flowered; floral bracts laxly imbricate and exposing the rachis, oblong-ovate, 12–15 mm long, exceeding the sepals, carinate, incurved, thin, strongly nerved, soon glabrous. flowers subsessile; sepals oblong, obtuse, to 12 mm long, sparsely lepidote or glabrous, nerved, much connate adaxially; petals oblong, obtuse, white. stamens included.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.