plant caulescent, flowering less than 4 dm high; stem to 1 m long. leaves about 10, fasciculate; sheath broadly ovate-triangular, brown-furfuraceous beneath, long-spinose toward apex; petioles less than 8 cm long, armed with spreading acicular spines 3 mm long; blade obovate-lanceolate, cuneate, acuminate, 20 cm long, 7–12 cm wide, entire, glabrous. inflorescence: peduncle evident, erect, half as long as the leaves; peduncle bracts densely imbricate, laneeolate, laciniate-spinose, glabrous; fertile part simple, very dense, polystichously few-flowered, 9 cm long, 4 cm in diameter; floral bracts lance-elliptic, inflated toward base (?), recurved-spreading and carinate toward apex, 40 mm long, 14 mm wide, exceeding the sepals, scarlet turning to brownish purple when dry, narrow with a conspicuous dark base having a transverse line along which the bracts are deciduous. flowers subsessile, ferruginous-lanate toward base; sepals acuminate, uncinate-recurved at apex, 39 mm long, ecarinate. pistil: ovary to 2/3 superior; ovules caudate.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.