plant acaulescent, 16–25(–45) cm tall, with a small spreading or crateriform rosette of many lustrous and mostly red-striate leaves. leaves thin, 15–30(–35) cm long, nearly always exceeding or equaling the inflorescence, densely and minutely lepidote; sheath distinct, abruptly contracted into the blade, obovate-oblong, broadly convex toward the apex, (2.5-)4.4–7 x (2.0-)1.5(–4.2) cm; blade arching, very narrowly triangular, 15–22 x 1–2.5 cm, attenuately acute, pungent. inflorescence simple, erect, 10–20 cm long; peduncle 4–6 cm long, ca 4 mm in diam., concealed by the leaves and its bracts; peduncle bracts erect, densely imbricate, subcoriaceous, ovate, the lower ones with erect linear blades, the upper ones more apiculate, much exceeding the internodes, densely punctulate-lepidote, pale lustrous-green; spikes obovate-lanceolate, strongly complanate (sometimes concave), 8–13 x 3–4 cm, acute or rounded, with a few reduced and imbricate sterile bracts at the base and apex, densely and distichously (4-)8–15-flowered; rachis entirely hidden, flexuous, alate-angled when dry, glabrous; floral bracts erect, strongly incurved toward the apex, densely imbricate, stiff-coriaceous, with even surface, (triangular-) ovate, 2.6–3.6 x 1.8 cm, about 4 times as long as the internodes, exceeding the sepals, apex extended alate-carinate, subglabrous, lustrous-green or pale-lilac. flowers sessile, contiguous; receptacle obconic, ca 2 mm long, bluntly angled; sepals subcoriaceous, with even surface, lanceolate, 23–30.5 x 3–3.6 mm, with thin veinless margins, acute, free, glabrous, adaxial ones with thick midvein, becoming bluntly angled at the base (carinate when dry); petals 36–55 x 3–5 mm, spathulate, the blade spreading, oblong, acute, blue or pale-rose. stamens all alike, deeply included, exceeding or exceeded by the pistil; filament flaccid, straight, 11 x 1–1.5 mm, flat and very broad, forming a tube (at the base for 1–3 mm or loosely con-glutinated), attenuate or acuminate distally; anther sub-basifixed, sagittate (?), 3–4(–6) x 1 mm. pistil: ovary broadly cylindric, ca 5 mm long, contracted into the slender style; style 9 x 1 mm; stigma 1 mm long, plae green. fruits cylindric, to ca 3 cm long, equaling the sepals, attenuate and beaked.Edited from : Gouda 1987. Bromeliaceae (subfamily Tillandsioideae) in Görts-van Rijn, A.R.A. (ed.) Flora of the Guiana\'s Series A: Phanerogams.