plant stemless, flowering 4–9 dm high. leaves erect, 3–7 dm long, densely appressed-lepidote; sheath broadly ovate, 7–15 cm long, dark castaneous; blade very narrowly triangular, long attenuate, 2–3 cm wide. inflorescence: peduncle slender; peduncle bracts imbricate, elliptic, linear-laminate; fertile part densely cylindric, twice-branched, 15–45 crn long, 4–9 cm in diameter, densely flocculose; primary bracts erect, more or less imbricate and covering the axis of the inflorescence, about equaling the sterile base of the branches, elliptic, apiculate; branches flabellate with 3–5 spikes, bracteate at base; spikes horizontally spreading, lanceolate, acute, strongly complallate, 3–5 cm long, 10–13 mm wide, dense; floral bracts imbricate, lanceolate, acute, 10–12 mm long, about equaling the sepals, carinate, thin, nerved, rose. flowers sessile; sepals ovate, obtuse, 9 mm long, glabrous, the adaxial carinate, slightly connate; petals 6 mm longer than the sepals, crenulate, blue, violet or rose, appendaged, exceeding the stamens.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.