plant stemless, flowering 5 dm high. leaves 3 dm long, completely covered with fine appressed brown-centered scales, tinged with dark purple; sheath elliptic, ca 10 cm long, conspicuous, dark castaneous; blade narrowly triangular, attenuate, 25 mm wide. inflorescence: peduncle erect, 3 mm in diameter, glabrous; peduncle bracts small, remote, the lower caudate, the upper apiculate; fertile part simple, lax, secundly 3–5-flowered, 5–9 cm long, glabrous outside; rachis slender, subterete; internodes curved, 20–25 mm long; floral bracts secund with the flowers, broadly ovate, apiculate or obtuse, 14 mm long, ecarinate, dark and nerved when dry. flowers: pedicel obconic, 6 mm long; sepals oblong, obtuse, 23 mm long, ecarinate, nerved when dry, densely lepidote inside; petals (immature) shorter than the sepals, bearing 2 acute scales at base.Edited from : Phytologia. (protologue) .