plant 65–90 cm tall, epiphytic. leaves 30–50 cm long, blades 5.0–7.0 cm wide, reddish in dry state, lingulate, apex rounded and apiculate, densely appressed-lepidote below, subglabrous above, sheath 12–16 cm long, 8.0–9.0 cm wide, blue-white glaucous, elliptic, conspicuous. inflorescence: peduncle including inflorescence to 85 cm long, 4–7 mm in diameter, erect, red; pedunclebracts 2.5–7.0 cm long, 1.8–2.0 crn wide, imbricate toward inflorescence, more distant below, strict; fertile part 25–40 cm long, 10–20 cm in diameter, once-branched, cylindric to subpyramidal, glabrous, erect; primary bracts 2.5–5.0 cm long, 1.5 cnr wide, spreading, red, glabrous; spikes 7.0–11 cm long, 1.5–3.0 cm wide, erect, having ca 15 to 20 per inflorescence, ca 1.5 cm apart, 5 to 12 flowers per spike; floral bracts 1.6–2.2 cm long, 0.9–1.1 cm wide, spreading to erect, ovate to ovate-elliptic, glabrous without and within, ecarinate, papery, apex acute. flowers: sepals 1.6–1.7 cm long, 5–9 mm wide, dull green, obovate, glabrous without, subglabrous within, ecarinate, papery, acute; petals ca 2.5 cm long, yellow. pistil: ovary 5–6 mm long, 3–4 min in diameter, very slightly inferior. stamens included with corolla by ca 3 mm, free from petals, distance between flowers 7–10 mm, in flower february to april.Edited from : Gilmartin 1972. The Bromeliaceae of Ecuador .