plant stemless, making stolons from the base, flowering to 70 cm high, leaves few (ca.7), forming a close funnel shaped rosette. leaves: sheath indistinct, 8 cm long, 5 cm wide, both sides lepidote, top side pale green, underneath greenish red, leaf blade sub-ligulate, with 4 mm long spiny tip, ca 70 cm long, 4–5 cm wide, underneath the reddish colour of the sheath overflows, dense white lepidote, abundantly baanded, topsside almost glabrous, the edges with very small brown teeth, inflorescence once-branched, with 1 (–2) side spikes, peduncle erect, 40 cm long, 0.5 cm thick, round, dark wine red, dense dusty white floccose; peduncle bracts longish lanceolate, triangular-acuminate, adjacent to the peduncle with the tip reflexed, the edges toothed, both sides wine red, white floccose, underneath nerved, the bottom ones shorter than the internodes, the upper ones (under the inflorescence rosette) longer than the internodes, to 5 cm long and 1 cm wide; primary bracts similar to upper peduncle bracts. inflorescence: spikes cylindric to cone shaped, acuminate side spike short stemmed (0.5 cm), 5 cm long, 2 cm wide, cylindric; end spike 8.5 cm long, at the bottom to 3 cm wide, cone shaped, floral bracts polystichous, similar to peduncle bracts, erect, imbricate, 3–4 cm long, 1 cm wide, ovate, with a narrow triangular tip, much longer than the sepals, the upper ones smaller and with shorter tips, dark wine red, white floccose, toothed, strongly nerved, not adjacent to the rachis, flower sub-sessile, 3 cm long, sepals free, indistinctly asymmetric, sub-ligulate, with rudimentary mucron, 1 cm long, 0.4 cm wide, raspberry red, white floccose, after flowering bent together to form a hood. flowers: petals 2.5 cm long, hooded, violet, the base white, a little spreading, at the base with fimbriate ligules, red when dry. pistil: style & stamens enclosed. stamens: anther whitish; filament violet with the bottom white; style* tipped pale violet otherwise white, shorter than the stamens which are almost as long as the petals; filament* joined to the petal for 1 cm otherwise free; ovary globose, 0.5 cm diam epigynous tube distinct but short, ovules with a tail.Translated by Butcher from: Rauh 1986a. Bromelienstudien (Mitteilung 18). I. Neue und wenig bekannte Arten aus Peru und anderen Ländern .