plant stemless or nearly so, flowering to 8 dm high but often much less. leaves rather many in a subfasciculate rosette but the outer recurved, 3 dm long, entire; sheath broadly ovate, 2–3 cm long, the outer ones dark castaneous; blade linear, attenuate, ca 5 mm wide but involute-subulate and appearing narrower. inflorescence: peduncle slender, glabrous; peduncle* ¬bracts narrowly triangular, small, very remote; fertile part subpyramidal, very laxly once-branched or rarely simple, to 3 dm long, few-flowered, glabrous; primary bracts many times shorter than the sterile bases of the branches; branches subspreading; floral bracts ovate, obtuse, shorter than the pedicels. flowers: pedicel slender, 3–4 mm long. flowers spreading; sepals broadly ovate, obtuse, 4 mm long; petals broadly rounded, 10 mm long, white. stamens included, the anthers elliptic, 1.5 mm long.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.