plant rather variable. leaves 5–10 dm long; sheath indistinct, densely brown punctulate-lepidote on both sides; blade linear-ligulate, broadly rounded with a broad triangular apiculus, to 12 cm wide, pale-lepidote on both sides, becoming glabrous above, serrate with teeth to 2 mm long or sometimes subentire. inflorescence: peduncle more or less arching, floccose, often becoming glabrous; peduncle bracts erect, imbricate, lanceolate, acuminate, entire, pale, chartaceous; fertile part once-branched, cylindric, dense at least toward the apex, 2–4 dm long, equaling or exceeding the leaves, more or less floccose lepidote; primary bracts like the peduncle-bracts, the lower ones usually exceeding the spikes; spikes spreading or reflexed, ellipsoid or subcylindric, 15–45 mm long, at least the lower ones distinctly stipitate; stipe 1.5–3 mm in diameter, from very short to 15 mm long; floral bracts broadly ovate, acuminate, 7–15 mm long, prominently striate, stramineous when dry. flowers up to 17 mm long; sepals strongly asymmetric, mucronate, 4–8 mm long, carinate; petals linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 12 mm long, white, each bearing 2 infundibuliform scales. pistil: ovary compressed; ovules obtuse, borne near the apex of the cell; berry subglobose.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1979. Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.