plant stemless, flowering (with straightened inflorescence) to 60 cm high leaves numerous, forming a 30 cm high, 50 cm wide, funnel rosette. leaves: sheath indistinct, broad-oval, to 10 cm high, 8 cm wide, pale, topside of the upper third dark violet striped, flecked and edged; blade to 25 cm long, 4 cm wide next to sheath, edges bent inwards, twisted together in a short mostly bent back tip, lively green, both sides very scttered appressed lepidote, the bottom third violet flecked. inflorescence: peduncle erect to bent over, 5 mm thick, cinnabar-red, to 20 cm long, densely enclosed with leaflike peduncle bracts; peduncle bracts with long, stem enclosing cinnabar-red sheath and longish-oval, acuminate, green, scattered lepidote balde; fertile part bent over, to 35 cm long, (including the 10 cm long top spike) laxly once-branched; rachis thin, ca edged, cinnabar-red; spikes ca 13, sticking out horizontal; primary bracts longish lancelike, enclosing and exceeding the leaved, sterile, to 4 cm long, spike base, shiny cinnabar-red, green tipped, the upper uniformly cinnabar-red and shorter, smooth, weakly nerved at tip, very scattered appressed lepidote; spikes* 10 - 15 flowered, narrow linear, with a sloping, spreading, 2.5 cm long, double keeled, sharply tipped bract, sterile bracts 1 - 2, fertile section to 10 cm long, 1 - 1.5 cm wide, complanate; rachis* partly visible but all visible after flowering, green, flat; floral bracts densely imbricate, subcarinate, 2 keeled at base, the bottom shiny cinnabar-red, the upper half green but red tipped, smooth, weakly nerved at tip, underneath very scattered lepidote, ca 2 cm long, at base 6 mm wide, narrow triangular, acuminate, exceeds the sepals. flowers: sepals longish acuminate, 1.5 cm long, nerved when dry, the adaxial pair carinate; petals to 3.3 cm long, pale violet, white at base, the tip twisted, opening a little. stamens and style enclosed.Edited from : Rauh & Gross 1991. Bromelienstudien (Mitteilung 22). I. Neue und wenig bekannte Arten aus Peru und anderen Ländern .