leaves ca 4 dm long; sheath ovate, very large, dark violet especially inside toward base, microscopically punctulate-lepidote; blade ligulate, acuminate to a stiff spine, 65 mm wide, densely serrate with straight spreading or slightly retrorse spines 5 mm long, covered on both sides with minute appressed white scales. inflorescence: peduncle very slender , sparsely white-arachnoid; peduncle bracts remote (?), erect (?), lanceolate, acute, the upper ones sparsely dentate; fertile part laxly once-branched to the apex, subthyrsoid, acute, 30 cm long, 7 cm in diameter, many-flowered; axis sparsely white-puberulent; branches spreading, fertile throughout, 35 mm long, distichously 8-flowered, slightly undulate, strongly complanate; floral bracts spreading, very broadly ovate, strongly retrorse-mucronate, ca 6 mm long, navicular. flowers sessile, to 15 mm long; sepals free, strongly asymmetric, mucronulate, 5 mm long, yellow, subglabrous; petals mucronulate, 12 mm long, yellow, bearing 2 fimbriate scales. stamens included, the second series highly adnate to the petals; anther elliptic, 2.5 mm long. pistil: ovary ellipsoid, terete, scarcely constricted at apex, covered with appressed snow-white scales. fruits yellow, 6 mm long, 5 mm in diameter; seeds ovoid, acute, 2.5 mm long.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1979. Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.