plant stoloniferous, to 20 cm high. leaves about 12, forming a long ampullaceous rosette, 11–17 cm long; sheath elliptic, strongly gibbous, 6–8 cm long, to 6 cm wide, covered on both sides with immersed punctiform brown scales; blade spreading to re¬flexed, ligulate, rounded and apiculate, minutely denticulate. inflorescence: peduncle 4 cm long; peduncle* ¬bracts ovate, mucronate, 5 cm long, 25 mm wide, whitish; fertile part simple, ellip¬soid, about 12-flowered, nearly concealed by the leaf-sheaths; floral bracts linear¬lanceolate, nearly or quite equaling the sepals, entire. flowers: pedicel plicate, 2 cm long; sepals linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 35 mm long, connate for 10 mm; petals 6 cm long, connate at base, the blade lanceolate, white except the violet apex. stamens equaling the petals; anther linear, apiculate, obtuse at base, 10 mm long, attached just above the base. pistil: ovary subtrigonous, 10 mm long; placentae subapical; ovules subapiculate; style 5 cm long.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1979. Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.