plant stemless, forming groups, flowering over 1 m high; rosette leaves few, dimorphous, (the basal lower leaves bladeless), clearly stemmed. leaves: sheath roundish-oval, approximately 3 cm long, 3 cm wide, chestnut brown, glabrous; stem to 20 cm long, 1–1,5 cm wide, upperside channelled, upper half of the sheath dense brown woolly lepidote, the edges with 2 mm long, dark brown, downward pointing spines; these ± 7 mm apart; blade persistent, long-lanceolate acuminate, 60–70 cm long, 6,5 cm wide, edges entire, underneath glabrous, upperside almost glabrous, with sunken mid-nerves. inflorescence: peduncle erect, short, ± 15 cm long, 1 cm thick; peduncle bracts imbricate, triangular acuminate, 4 cm wide, 12–13 cm long, nerved, green, brown lepidote on both sides, almost glabrous; inf1orescence erect, simple, subcylindric, many-flowered, ± 36 cm long, 3 cm thick,( fig; 4, left); flora1 bracts densely imbricate, in a spiral, longish ovate, with triangular acuminate, spreading blades (fig; 4), 6,5 cm long, ecarinate, longer than the sepals, ± strong, pale green, glabrous, edges with hyaline hem; which are brown-woolly lepidote. flowers sessile, zygomorphic, sepals longish acuminate, 30 mm long, 7 mm wide, pale green, scattered brown-woolly; petals 9 cm long, tongue-shaped, glabrous, shiny yellow, at the base bi-dentate ligules. stamens and style enclosed. pistil: style yellow with twsisted stigma lobes, somewhat exceeding the stamens; anther 1,2 cm long, yellow; ovary 1/2 superior, 1 cm long, 4 mm wide; ovules caudate.Translated by Butcher from: Rauh 1986a. (protologue) Bromelienstudien (Mitteilung 18). I. Neue und wenig bekannte Arten aus Peru und anderen Ländern .