plant distinctly caulescent, flowering 10–20 cm high; stem simple or branched, 3–5 cm long, much exceeded by the leaves. leaves densely polystichous-ranked, to 15 cm long, densely cinereous-villous with fine scales, these produced basally into long narrowly triangular lobes; sheath broadly elliptic, distinct from the blades, the lower part membranaceous, glabrous, strongly nerved; blade mostly spreading or reflexed, involute-subulate, filiform-attenuate, 3 mm in diameter. inflorescence: peduncle terminal, erect or ascending, less than 1 mm in diameter, strongly sulcate, glabrous; peduncle bracts imbricate, involute, much exceeding the internodes, lanceolate, acuminate, thin, strongly nerved, roseate, lepidote, the lower laminate; fertile part always simple, elliptic, strongly complanate, 35 mm long, 16 mm wide, densely 3–8-flowered; rachis slender, nearly straight; floral bracts imbricate and concealing the rachis, three to four times as long as the internodes, lanceolate, acute, 26 mm long, much exceeding the sepals, 8 mm wide, membranaceous, strongly nerved, roseate, puberulent-lepidote, the upper half distinctly carinate. flowers subsessile; sepals lanceolate, acuminate, to 17 mm long, 5 mm wide, carinate, membranaceous, strongly nerved, lepidote, subfree; petals tubular-erect, green. stamens and pistil exserted (! mez). pistil: ovary ellipsoid. fruits cylindric, acute, 25 mm long.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.