plant stemless, flowering 7–8 dm high. leaves in a dense rosette, suberect, 4–7 dm long, very densely; and finely appressed-lepidote throughout; sheath elliptic, brownish; blade narrowly triangular, long-attenuate, 15 - 20 mm wide, involute toward the apex. inflorescence: peduncle erect, shorter than the leaves, stout; peduncle bracts erect, imbricate, lance-elliptic, the lower ones with long foliaceous blades; fertile part erect, compound, densely and slenderly cylindric, 4 dm long; primary bracts like the upper peduncle-bracts, suberect, their sheaths more than half as long as the axillary spikes; spikes strict, subsessile, very densely 6-flowered with a few reduced sterile bracts at base, lance-ovate, 8–9 cm long, 2 cm wide, complanate; floral bracts erect, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, 3–4 cm long, exceeding the sepals, carinate, coriaceous, faintly nerved and lepidote toward the apex. flowers subsessile; sepals lanceolate, acuminate, 3 cm long, subchartaceous, glabrous, the adaxial ones connate and sharply carinate. fruits shorter than the sepals.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.