plant stemless. leaves 35 cm long; sheath broadly elliptic, 2 cm long, serrulate, glabrous; blade linear-triangular, filiform-acuminate, not at all constricted at base, 12 mm wide, glabrous above, covered beneath with pale appressed scales, laxly serrulate with pale ascending teeth 0.5 mm long; floral bracts linear, about equaling the sepals, membranaceous, subcucullate, densely lepidote toward apex. flowers: sepals 13 mm long, unequally connate for 4–5 mm, oblong, broadly cuspidate-acute, subcucullate, membranaceous, lepidote; petals 4 cm long, obtuse, bright orange. stamens and style included. pistil: ovary obconic, 5 mm long.Edited from ( 9-30-2013): Smith & Downs 1979. Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.