plant stemless, flowering 1.2 m high. leaves 6–8 dm long, minutely brown-lepidote; sheath large, elliptic; slightly broader than the blades, dark castaneous on the outside; blade ligulate, acute with a hard acuminate cusp; flat, 11 cm wide; obscurely mottled with dark green. inflorescence: peduncle erect, stout; peduncle bracts imbricate, the lower subfoliaceous, the upper broadly ovate and apiculate; fertile part much branched; primary bracts like the upper peduncle bracts, several times shorter than the long sterile bases of the branches; branches strict, 4 dm long, laxly prophyllate at the base, many-flowered; axis slightly flexuous, stout; floral bracts broadly ovate, inflated, ecarinate, to 3 cm long, from equaling to slightly shorter than the sepals, coriaceous, even, glabrous. flowers spreading, not secund; pedicel stout, about 1 cm long; sepals elliptic, obtuse, 17 mm long, ecarinate, coriaceous;.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.