plant - caulescent, flowering to 30 cm high, amply branched and lax, l0–15 cm high and making a large swathe, l0–50 cm diameter; stem to l5 cm long, at the base thin, naked and strongly rooted, towards the tip thickened by the sheath of dead leaves; live leaves laxly spirally arranged. leaves: sheath - clearly evident, strongly covering the stem to l.5 cm high, l.7 cm wide, pale brownish, top side naked, shiny, underneath of the top half dense white (sparrig) lepidote; blade - when young erect, with age ca horizontal sticking out, to l5 cm long, 4 mm wide, long attenuate, strongly channelled, almost grooved, both sides dense white pruinose lepidote, scales strongly asymmetric and long type of wings; inflorescence- erect to slightly bent over, to 20 cm long, always simple. inflorescence: peduncle - very thin, l5–20 cm long, naked; peduncle bracts - erect, the bottom ones longer than the internodes, leaflike, dense white lepidote, the upper bladeless, longish lancelike, dark-violet, naked; spikes - complanate, 3–6 flowered, to 3 cm long, l cm wide, acuminate; rachis - flat on the side, visible, weakly flexible, naked; floral bracts - erect longish lancelike, acuminate, to l5 mm long, 4 mm wide, exceeds the sepals, scattered lepidote, naked , dark violet, not keeled, when dry strongly nerved; flower- subsessile; sepal- lancelike, ca l2 mm long, free at base, the adaxial slightly keeled, the tip dark violet, the bottom greenish white; petal- thin lancelike with broad ovate, 5x5 mm large, flat and wide, blue violet 'platten', throat white. pistil: style & stigma - deeply enclosed, filament flat with anther exceeding the short style.Edited from : Rauh 1987b. Bromelienstudien (Mitteilung 19). I. Neue und wenig bekannte Arten aus Peru und anderen Ländern .