; 0 terrestrial plant, 2 m tall when fruiting. leaves: sheath not seen leaf blades coriaceous, linear-ligulate, attenuate, 1.3–1.5 m long, 4–4.5 cm wide, strongly spinose in the lower ¼ - 1/5 with black, broad based spines 3 mm long, obscurely and sparsely lepidote beneath, mostly glabrous above. inflorescence laxly 4-pinnate, 2 m tall, longer axes 9–14 cm long, the ultimate axes 3–11 cm long, glabrous, the flowers 3–4 mm apart; primary bracts broadly triangular, long-attenuate, shorter than the sterile bases of the main axes, 3.5–4.5 cm long, scarious margined; bracts subtending the secondary axes broadly ovate, abruptly attenuate, 3–7 mm long. flowers reflexed floral bracts broadly suborbicular-deltoid, subamplexicaul, acuminate, 3–5 mm long, about 3/8 length of the sepals; sepals oblong-ovate or ovate, subobtuse, 4–7 mm long, the adaxial strongly carinate; petals ( past anthesis) 9 mm long. pistil: ovary superior, ovoid, 4 mm long.Edited from : Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 76: 954, fig. 8.. (1989.)