plant flowering 25 cm high with the inflorescence extended. leaves about 20 in a funnelform rosette, 13–16 cm long; sheath 4 cm long, 3 cm wide, purple; blade ligulate, broadly acute or subrounded, apiculate, 2 cm wide, green. inflorescence: peduncle decurved, slender, shorter than the leaves; peduncle bracts erect, imbricate, lance-ovate, acute, red with a green apex; fertile part simple, dense, broadly elliptic, strongly compressed, about 12-flowered, 13 cm long, 5.5 cm wide; floral bracts suberect, very densely imbricate, suboblong, acute, 50–55 mm long, incurved and sharply carinate toward apex, exceeding the sepals, red with a green or yellow apex. flowers: pedicel short, stout; sepals 35–40 mm long. stamens exserted.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.