plant wholly glabrous at anthesis, flowering 1 m high. leaves many in a bulbous rosette, homomorphic, over 5 dm long; sheath reniform, 4 cm wide, dark castaneous, lustrous; blade very narrowly subxr.iangular, slightly narrowed at base, attenuate, 20 mm wide, flat, very laxly serrate with slender antrorse spines 2 mm long. inflorescence: peduncle erect, 6 mm in diameter; peduncle bracts strict, subfoliaceous, serrulate, all but the highest exceeding the internodes; fertile part very laxly subtwice-branched, subpyramidal, over 4 dm long, 3 dm wide, red; primary bracts narrowly triangular; shorter than the sterile mostly naked bases of the branches, the lowest serrulate; branches spreading, mostly simple, slender, slightly flexuous; floral bracts downwardly secund with the flowers, elliptic, apiculate, 8 mm long, exceeding the very short but slender pedicels, membranaceous. flowers spreading; sepals linear, acute, 22 mm long, ecarinate; petals naked, undeveloped in the type. pistil: ovary 2/3 superior; ovules alate.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.