plant flowering to 3 m high. leaves (inner) to 4 dm long, subdensely serrulate, glabrous above; sheath broadly ovate, ca 4 cm long, brown, subdensely vestite beneath with appressed orbicular whitish scales; blade narrowly triangular, not at all contracted, 27 mm wide, obscurely and sparsely lepidote beneath. inflorescence: peduncle 2 cm in diameter; peduncle¬bracts erect, foliaceous, densely imbricate; fertile part very laxly twice-thrice-branched, g abrous; primary bracts broadly ovate, acuminate, shorter than the sterile bases of the branches, the lower serrulate; branches to 28 cm long; floral bracts very broadly ovate, about half as long as the sepals. flowers spreading, sessile; sepals free, cochlear-imbricate, broadly ovate, obtuse, 4 mm long, thte adaxial obtusely carinate; young petals included. pistil: ovary superior.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.