plant stemless or short stemmed, flowering to 25 cm high. leaves numerous, stiff, dark grey- green, dense appressed scaled forming an erect somewhat secund rosette; sheath distinct, ovate to 30 mm long, 25 mm wide, nerved; blade narrow triangular, 10 – 13 cm long, next to the sheath 15- 20 mm wide, strongly grooved, long awl like acuminate. inflorescence: peduncle erect, to weakly bent, to 14 cm long, round, smooth, 2.5 mm diam., peduncle bracts as long as the internodes 20 – 30mm, the lower ones with awl like leafy blades, the upper ones merely an awl like tip, shorter than the inflorescence, reddish, densely scaled; fertile part simple, polystichous, lax to 5 flowered, to 5 cm long. flowers sessile, to 26 mm long; floral bracts ovate lanceolate, to 25 mm long, becoming membranous, pinkish red, smooth, not keeled, the bottom with an awl like tip, the upper ones tipped and apiculate, the tip scaled, much longer than the sepals; sepals lanceolate, free, to 17 mm long, light reddish, the tip white, the tip with scattered scales, the adaxial pair with an indistinct blunt keel with a fleshy thick mid nerve; petals narrow lingulate, its blade longish ovate and a little bent over, 27 mm long, white, sometimes towards the tip a pale violet suffusion. stamens and style included in the flower, filament 15 mm long, white, flat, in the middle a transverse pleat; anther linear, 2 mm long, yellow, basifixed. pistil: ovary globose, 2 mm in diam., green, style 15 mm long, round, very thin, white, lobes very small and contorted.Translated by Butcher from: Weber 1984b. (protologue) Die Bromeliaceae im Herbarium D.F.L. von Schlechtendals .