plant flowering 15–20 cm high from a short erect branching rhizome. leaves to 4 cm long; blade arching-recurved, narrowly triangular, covered on both sides with a cinereous membrane of fused scales, the outer laxly serrate with minute spines, the inner entire. inflorescence: peduncle erect, ca 2 mm in diameter, glabrous; peduncle bracts remote, ovate with short linear pungent blades, entire; fertile part simple, very laxly 2–3-flowered, glabrous; rachis undulate; floral bracts broadly ovate, apiculate, 8 mm long, about equaling or exceeding the stout pedicels. flowers spreading, 11–15 mm long; sepals narrowly ovate, subacute or obtuse, 8 mm long, petal-blades erect, oblong, obtuse, neither undulate nor carinate, exceeding the stamens. stamens: filament free above the common tube; anther elliptic, acuminate.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.