plant stemless, flowering 30 to probably 50 cm high. leaves in a spreading rosette, 35–40 cm long, covered with fine, appressed, brown-centered scales; sheath ample, 10–15 cm long, maculate with red-purple verging into solid purple at base; blade ligulate, attenuate, 2–3 cm wide, maculate, more or less cinereous beneath. inflorescence: peduncle erect; peduncle bracts erect, densely imbricate, subfoliaceous; fertile part densely once-branched, ellipsoid, 13–18 cm long; primary bracts broadly ovate, even sublustrous, red, sparsely and obscurely lepidote, the lower laminate and covering about half the axillary spike; spikes lanceolate, acute, strongly complanate, 5–7 cm long, 15–20 mm wide, densely 8–12-flowered; floral bracts broadly ovate, apiculate, 20–25 mm long, covering the sepals, strongly carinate, thin-coriaceous, even, glabrous, lustrous, bright blood-red, drying to stramineous. flowers: pedicel short; sepals lanceolate, acute, 18 mm long, the adaxial carinate, connate for 5 mm; petal-blades elliptic, obtuse, 10 mm long, lavender. stamens and pistil included.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.