leaves to 1.3 m long; sheath elliptic, ample, 20 cm long, dark castaneous except near apex, densely buff-lepidote; blade linear, attenuate to a dark pungent cusp, 30–45 mm wide, white-lepidote laxly serrate with dark flat spines 2–3 mm long. inflorescence: peduncle stout, arching, to 25 cm long; peduncle bracts densely imbricate, broadly ovate, long-laminate; fertile part densely once-branched, subglobose or pyramidal, 15–25 cm long; primary bracts broadly ovate, red, concealing the spikes, denticulate to entire, the lower acuminate, the upper apiculate and strongly cucullate; spikes densely 7–10-flowered; floral bracts broadly ovate or lanceolate, 15–20 mm long, concealing the ovary and part of the sepals, entire, mucronulate. flowers: sepals free, strongly asymmetric, 16–22 mm long, carinate, mucronate, glabrous; petals 32 mm long, blue. pistil: ovary subglobose, epigynous tube short, funnelform; placentae apical; ovules caudate.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1979. Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.