plant flowering about 2 m high; stem erect, very stout, sometimes elongate. leaves many in a funnelform rosette, to over 1m long, nearly straight; blade ligulate, attenuate, 8–18 cm wide, densely and minutely lepidote beneath, smooth and glabrous above, green. inflorescence: peduncle erect, very stout; peduncle bracts divergent but densely imbricate, subfoliaceous, large; fertile part sublaxly once-branched, much branched; primary bracts acuminate from a broadly ovate base, much shorter than the branches; branches spreading or decurved, to 6 dm long; slightly sigmoid with the apex curved upward, usually many-flowered with several sterile bracts at base, more or less geniculate; floral bracts ovate, acute, to 35 mm long, 3–4 times as long as the internodes, usually about half as long as the sepals, carinate, pale green. flowers divergent, exposing the rachis, distichous or somewhat upwardly secund; pedicel obconic, stout, ca 1 cm long; sepals lanceolate, acute, to 35 mm long; petals linear, acute, 5 cm or longer, yellow, bearing 2 large obtuse scales at base, exceeding the stamens. fruits stout, acuminate, 5 cm long.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.