plant stemless, flowering 6–8 dm long. leaves numerous in a funnelform rosette, 25–50 cm long, covered with appressed, cinereous brown-centered scales; sheath elliptic, 25 cm long, 10 cm wide, deep maroon; blade attenuate, flat, 2–5 cm wide, green. inflorescence: peduncle arching-decurved, 15 mm thick; peduncle bracts densely imbricate, the lower foliaceous, the upper elliptic, deep maroon, bearing a short attenuate recurved green blade; fertile part compact at apex, primary bracts like the upper peduncle-bracts, many times shorter than the spikes; spikes few, pendulous, lance-oblong, acute, strongly complanate, 9–17 cm long, 2.5–5 cm wide, densely 13–17 -flowered; floral bracts broadly elliptic, acute, 4 cm long, exceeding the sepals, carinate, coriaceous, glabrous, lustrous, yellow-green with maroon-red margins. flowers: pedicel stout, 4 mm long; sepals elliptic, to 32 mm iong, free, carinate, thin-coriaceous, sparsely lepidote; petals 6 cm long, blade deep purple. stamens included.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.