plant acaulescent, propagating by short, basal rhizomes. leaves 10–14 per rosette, 15–35 cm long, suberect to near spreading at anthesis, somewhat recurved, forming a round, open rosette; sheath suborbiculate, 12–17 cm long, 15–25 mm wide, glabrous near base, densely and coarsely white-lepidote, corrugate-nerved, and densely spinulose toward the apex, pale yellow adaxially, reddish wine abaxially; blade very narrowly triangular, very long and soft-acuminate caudate, 15–24 mm long, 13–15 mm wide at base, neither narrower near the base nor undulate along the margins, usually flat, rarely the inner blades basely, slightly canaliculate, thin in texture, nerved, green or reddish-white toward the base but the color obscured by a dense layer of white, coarse scales, scales flat, weakly appressed and easily detached by touch, margins densely serrate with reddish needle-shaped spines, 1–2 mm long, 3–5 mm apart. inflorescence sessile, usually 2–3-flowered per fascicle; primary bracts foliaceous about half of the length of the leaves, similar to the leaves in shape, surface, texture, and margins; fascicles ca 15 mm long excluding the petals; floral bracts ovate-triangulate, acute, entire, ca 10 mm long, 8–14 mm wide at the base, strongly carinate, white-floccose near the apex, nearly equaling the sepals. flowers ca 30 mm long, fragrant; sepals narrowly triangulate-acuminate, ca 10 mm long, 2–2.5 mm wide, connate at base for 3–4 mm, entire, white-lepidote only near the apex, basely glabrous, the adaxial ones carinate; petals spathulate, apex subacute to obtuse, 20–25 mm long, 8–10 mm wide, very narrow toward the base, adnate at the base for 5–7 mm in a common tube with the filaments «nd style, suberect to spreading at anthesis, distinctly exceeding the stamens. stamens ca 1 cm long; anther ca 3 mm long, base sagittate, apex apiculate. pistil: stigma simple-erect, stylar lobes linear, ca 2 mm long, subspreading, neither spiral not contorted, whitish; placentation subapical; epigynous tube absent; ovary ca 5 mm long; ovules obtuse, number unknown. fruits unknown.Edited from : Ramirez 1996. Systematics, phylogeny and chromosome number evolution in Cryptanthus (Bromeliaceae) .