plant caulescent; rhizome 15 mm in diameter. leaves few, rosulate, 7 dm long, densely white-lepidote beneath, glabrous above; sheath narrow, inconspicuous, entire; petioles 3 dm long, 1 cm wide, channeled, laxly serrate with flat spreading to antrorse 2 mm long teeth; blade linear -lanceolate, attenuate, 3 dm long, 55 mm wide, flat, laxly serrate. inflorescence: peduncle several, borne below the rosette, horizontal, short; pedunclebracts imbricate, elliptic, sparsely serrulate; fertile part simple, strobilate, ellipsoid, 5 cm long; floral bracts polystichous, elliptic, apiculate, 25 mm long, thin, densely serrulate, red, densely pale-lepidote. flowers: pedicel slender, 5 mm long; sepals 22 mm long, connate for 15 mm, the free apices broadly spatulate, apiculate, serrulate. fruits globose, 14 mm in diameter.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1979. Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.