plant flowering to 13 dm high. leaves many, suberect, 6 dm long, obscurely lepidote, the outer soon disintegrating; sheath 2 dm long, dark castaneous toward base; blade subligulate, 4 cm wide, narrowly rounded, apiculate. inflorescence: peduncle erect, 8 mm in diameter , glabrous; peduncle bracts foliaceous or subfoliaceous, large, densely imbricate; fertile part compound, lax, 3 dm long, glabrous; primary bracts much shorter than the racemes, broadly ovate or suborbicular; racemes spreading, densely 10-flowered, 10 cm long including the naked sterile base; rachis slender, geniculate, angled; floral bracts erect, 4 times as long as the internodes but not covering the rachis, elliptic, broadly acute, 26 mm long, slightly exceeding the sepals, carinate, slightly incurved toward apex, coriaceous, nearly smooth, yellow-brown when dry. flowers distichous; pedicel short, stout; sepals narrowly elliptic, obtuse, 22 mm long, carinate.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.