plant flowering 6 dm high. leaves many in a cyathiform rosette, 40–45 cm long, covered with a cretaceous powder; sheath elliptic, about as long as the blades but indistinct, obscurely punctulate-lepidote; blade linear-lanceolate, acuminate, to 33 mm wide, flat. inflorescence: peduncle erect, slender, glabrous; peduncle bracts erect, the lower ones subfoliaceous; densely imbricate, the upper ones long-acuminate from an ovate base, equaling the internodes; fertile part laxly particulate, many-flowered, 25 cm long; primary bracts like the peduncle-bracts, much shorter than the sterile bases of the branches; lower branches slightly divided, divergent; upper branches simple, spreading; spikes short-stipitate, 3–13 cm long, laxly many-flowered; floral bracts broadly ovate, subacute, 3–4 mm long, much shorter than the sepals, prominently nerved. flowers subspreading, probably perfect; sepals broadly elliptic, strongly asymmetric, 6 mm long with the lateral wing extended; petals elliptic, obtuse, 6 mm long but slightly exserted, flavous. stamens slightly unequal. pistil: style short but distinct.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.