plant short-rhizomatose; flowering ca 4 cm high. leaves fasciculate-rosulate, about 10, 6 dm long, densely appressed-lepidote throughout, slightly canescent when dry; sheath elongate, obscure; blade filiform-attenuate, 15 mm wide. inflorescence: peduncle erect, rather stout, much shorter than the leaves, glabrous; peduncle bracts all exceeding the internodes, the lower bearing long sub-filiform reflexed blades, the upper abruptly acute, rigid, sublustrous; fertile part simple, linear, 10–12 cm long, 28 mm wide, laxly 12–17-flowered; rachis scarcely thickened at the insertion of the flowers, angled with 4 decurrent lines from the bases of the bracts, glabrous, slightly geniculate toward base, internodes 6–9 mm long; floral bracts divergent but not at all imbricate or concealing the rachis, broadly ovate, apiculate, ca 18–22 mm long, slightly shorter than the sepals in fruit, ecarinate, rigid, even or slightly nerved toward apex. flowers: pedicel stout; sepals slightly connate adaxially, obtuse, 16 mm long, rigid, even, glabrous; petals white. fruits sub cylindric, very slender, 55–60 mm long.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.