plant acaulis, to 0,3 m high. leaves to 0,3 m long, barely 20 mm wide in the middle, lingulate-linear, very acute, not at all pungent, chartaceous, almost totally glabrous, when dry wine red colour. inflorescence: peduncle much shorter than the leaves, very strong, erect, with dense bracts falling away in a typical plant; fertile part simple, a very dense spike, fertile up to the top, many flowered, only seen in fruit, to 0,14 m long and 65 mm diam., cylindric, tip obtuse; floral bracts almost all falling away thin membranaceous, glabrous, definitely long exceeding the sepals. flowers suberect-erect; sepals to 4 mm connate, to 15 mm long et 8 mm wide, fruit thick, coriaceous, chestnut brown, upper part with light linear veins, very wide and nearly symmetric rounded.Edited from : Mez 1935. (protologue) Bromeliaceae (part 1-4) in Engler, A. (ed) Das Pflanzenreich.