leaves 3–4 dm long; sheath ample; blade ligulate, broadly acute and cuspidate, 6 cm wide, sparsely lepidote, laxly serrate with straight or slightly curved spines 5 mm long. inflorescence: peduncle erect, slender, furfuraceous, violet; peduncle bracts lanceolate, acute, entire, brownish purple; fertile part densely once-branched, subovoid, 12–15 cm long, 7 cm in diameter; primary bracts lower ones like the peduncle-bracts, exceeding the spikes, upper primary-bracts abruptly much reduced; spikes divergent, distichously about 8-flowered, dense; rachis strongly winged; floral bracts ovate, mucronulate, 5 mm long. flowers spreading; sepals strongly asymmetric, mucronulate, free, 5 mm long, glabrous; petals 9 mm long, pale yellow; placentae apical; ovules caudate. fruits globose, 6 mm long, fleshy, white.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1979. Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.