plant stemless, flowering 35 cm high. leaves many in a dense rosette, 3 dm long; sheath ovate-elliptic, large, covered with castaneous scales; blade linear, subrounded and apiculate, 30 mm wide, minutely brown-punctulate on both sides. inflorescence: peduncle erect, short, stout; peduncle bracts imbricate, the lower foliaceous but reduced, the upper bract-like, acuminate, involute; fertile part simple, cylindric-fusiform, acute, 13 cm long, 25 mm in diameter, rather few-flowered, slightly sterile toward apex; floral bracts densely imbricate, exceeding the sepals, membranaceous, nearly white, subglabrous or punctulate lepidote, the lower abruptly acute, the others rounded. flowers subsessile, strict, 50–75 mm long; sepals elliptic, slightly asymmetric and rounded at apex, ca 25 mm long, connate for 3 mm, subcoriaceous, even, glabrous; petals yellow, agglutinated in a slender tube. stamens included.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1977. Tillandsioideae (Bromeliaceae). in Flora Neotropica.