plant stemless, flowering to 9 dm high. leaves numerous, 5–6 dm long, sparsely and finely lepidote; sheath elliptic, large, castaneous toward base; blade ligulate, broadly acute and apiculate, flat, ca 25 mm wide, concolorous. inflorescence: peduncle erect, slender, red-violet, sparsely pale-lepidote, soon glabrous; peduncle bracts erect, the lower subfoliaceous and imbricate, the upper ovate, acuminate, mostly shorter than the internodes; fertile part once-branched, lax, 8–17 cm long, sparsely pale-lepidote; primary bracts like the upper pedunclebracts, all much shorter than the axillary branches but exceeding their naked sterile bases; spikes spreading, ovoid or ellipsoid, 25–40 mm long, dense except at base; floral bracts broadly ovate, obtuse, much shorter than the sepals, nearly or quite even. flowers subsessile; sepals free or nearly so, elliptic, obtuse, to 10 mm long, the adaxial carinate; petals greenish-yellow, the blades spreading, elliptic, 6 mm long, barely exceeding the stamens.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.