plant flowering 1.5–2 m high. leaves over 8 dm long; sheath broadly ovate, densely punctulate-lepidote, dark castaneous beneath; blade ligulate, broadly subacute and apiculate, flat, 9 cm wide, minutely and obscurely lepidote beneath, glabrous above. inflorescence: peduncle unknown; fertile part amply twice-thrice-branched, glabrous, red except the petals; primary bracts broadly ovate, acuminate, 10–11 cm long, exceeding the bracteate sterile base of the branch; branches to 47 cm long, the axis flattened, flexuous; secondary bracts scarcely larger than the floral bracts, exceeding the bracteate sterile bases of the axillary simple or 2–3-parted branches; spikes laxly 3–6-flowered, 4–7 cm long; rachis geniculate, slender; floral bracts subspreading, elliptic, subacute, mostly slightly exceeded by the sepals, thin, strongly and closely nerved with a wide membranaceous margin, ecarinate. flowers subsessile, sometimes somewhat secund; sepals narrowly elliptic, obtuse, 17 mm long, unequally short-connate, thin, strongly nerved, ecarinate; petals naked, linear, 4 cm long, white, slightly exceeding the stamens.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.