plant terrestrial. leaves rosulate, suberect, forming a funnelform rosette; sheath elliptic, 10 x 5.5 cm, densely brown lepidote on both sides, pale-colored, nerved; blade sublinear, narrowed at base, apex acute to acuminate and distinctly apiculate, 30–60 x 3–4 cm, glabrescent, laxly to subdensely spinulose, spines dark brown, strongly antrorse, ca 1 mm long. inflorescence: peduncle ca 7 cm long, ca 0.5 cm in diameter; peduncle bracts foliaceous, shorter than the inflorescence; fertile part densely corymbose, subglobose, distincly echinate at apex, twice-branched, slightly exceeding the leaf-sheaths, ca 5 cm long, ca 8 cm in diameter, many-flowered, densely lanate with exception of the petals; primary bracts suboblong, apex acute, ending in a 1.5 cm-long apiculous, the outer ones 6 x 2.5 cm, red (carvalho !) densely spinulose-uncinate near the apex, spines irregularly curved; fascicles ca 8 in number, pulvinate, subflabellate, the outer ones 6 x 3 cm, including the 2.5 x 0.5 cm complanate peduncle, with ca 15 flowers, bearing 4–5 very short and inconspicuous secondary branches; secondary bracts resembling the floral bracts but bigger; floral bracts oblong elliptic, broadly acute and conspicuously spinose-mucronate, navicular, strongly carinate, spinulose at apex, 3.5 x 1 cm including the 1.5 cm long terminal spine, slightly surpassing the sepals. flowers ca 30 mm long (excluding the petals), sessile; sepals strongly asymmetric, suboblong, apex subobtuse and conspicuously spinose-mucronate, free, 22 x 6 mm, including the 11 mm long terminal spine, the adaxial ones alate-carinate; petals known from fragments (holotype) or immature (paratype), acuminate. stamens: anther ca 6 mm long, apex distinctly apiculate, fixed near middle. pistil: stigma conduplicate-spiral, lobes with lacerate margins; ov ary ca 8 mm long, ca 5 mm in diameter; placentae apical; ovules obtuse; epigynous tube ca 1.5 mm.Edited from : Leme 1995b. (protologue) Miscellaneous new species of the Brazilian Bromeliaceae .