plant stemless, flowering about 4 dm high. leaves to 6 dm long; sheath elliptic, ca 1 dm long, much wider than the blades, covered with minute appressed scales; blade ligulate, broadly acute and apiculate, 15–25 mm wide, laxly serrulate, strongly channeled in the middle, minutely lepidote beneath. inflorescence: peduncle erect, slender, slightly furfuraceous; peduncle bracts lanceolate, entire, membranaceous; fertile part laxly once-branched from 5- 7 branches, pyramidal, 10–11 cm long, slightly furfuraceous, soon glabrous; primary bracts narrowly lanceolate, attenuate, half as long as the spikes, membranaceous; spikes sublax, cylindric with the flowers polystichous, 4- 7 cm long; floral bracts ovate, acuminate, about equaling the ovaries, membranaceous. flowers suberect to spreading; sepals free, asymmetric, broadly elliptic, apiculate, 8 mm long; petals free, naked, 16 mm long, the blade narrowly elliptic. stamens included, the second series highly adnate to the petals, pollen biporate. pistil: ovary cylindric, sulcate, the epigynous tube evident; placentae apical; ovules many, obtuse.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1979. Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.