plant flowering 1–2 m high. leaves (inner) to 75 cm long; sheath suborbicular, 2 cm long, dark castaneous, glabrous; blade linear, attenuate, pungent, 15 mm wide, glabrous above, covered beneath with appressed cinereous scales, laxly serrate with dark antrorse curved spines 3 mm long. inflorescence: peduncle erect, 13 mm in diameter, glabrous; peduncle bracts erect, the lower subfoliaceous, imbricate, the upper narrowly triangular, shorter than the internodes, entire, lepidote at apex; fertile part simple or subsimple (one very short basal branch), 65 cm long, glabrous, blackish on drying; floral bracts elliptic, acute, 20 mm long, exceeding the pedicels to much shorter, entire, nerved on the margins, elsewhere rugose when dry. flowers suberect; pedicel slenderly cylindric, ca 12 mm long, strongly sulcate; sepals line ar-lanceolate, acute, 4 cm long, ecarinate; petals 6 cm long, naked, pale green. stamens included. pistil: ovary ca 1/2; inferior. fruits dehiscent ar apex; seeds alate.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.