plant epiphytic, stemless, flowering 24–35 cm tall. leaves coriaceous, stiff, sub-bulbous, rosulate; sheath 4–5.5 cm long, 3–4.5 cm wide, broadly ovate, more or less inflated, pale brownish; blade 25–35 cm long, 3–4 cm wide at base, narrowly triangular, coiled recurving, reddish tinged, sparsely covered beneath with sub-appressed cinereous scales, with prominent raised ribbonlike area on both surfaces especially in lower half. inflorescence: peduncle 12 cm long, erect, stout, glabrous, exceeding leaves; peduncle bracts densely imbricate, distinctly nerved, reddish; lower up to 15 cm long, foliaceous, inflated with arching recurved blades, 3 mm wide at base; upper broadly ovate, inflated with long caudate apex; fertile part to 12 cm long, densely once-branched, primary bracts like upper peduncle-bracts~ not longer than floral-bracts; spikes up to 6, clustered, 7–9.5 cm long, 2.5–3 cm wide, 1.3 cm thick, erect or suberect, subsessile, elliptic, acute, complanate with sterile bases; floral bracts 3.5–4 cm long, 2.5 cm wide, very densely imbricate, elliptic, exceeding sepals, acute convex, carinate, thin coriaceous vith hyaline margin, red-nerved, glabrous, lustrous. flowers sessile; sepals 3 cm long, linear-lanceolate, acute, thin, clearly nerved, carinate; petals 5 cm long, tubular erect, pale-green. stamens and pistil exserted.Edited from : Kew Bull.. (protologue) .