plant flowering over 1 m high. leaves over 1 m long, subdensely brown-punctatelepidote, coriaceous; sheath ample, ca 2 dm long, dark castaneous; blade ligulate, subacute, cuspidate, 4–6 cm wide, subdensely serrate with spreading, flat, dark castaneous, 4 mm long spines. inflorescence: peduncle straight, slender; peduncle bracts erect, densely imbricate, lanceolate, acute, entire, over 2 dm long, chartaceous, rose, brown-lepidote; fertile part laxly sub pyramidal, twice-branched, 1–4 dm long, covered with fine brown stellate trichomes; primary bracts linear-lanceolate, the upper ones shorter than their axillary branches; spikes laxly 7–8 flowered; rachis geniculate, slender; floral bracts acicular from a broadly triangular base, 2 mm long. flowers more than 2-ranked, sessile, suberect; sepals 12 mm long, connate for 1 mm, subelliptic, strongly asymmetric, the terminal mucro 1 mm long; petals about 2 cm long, each bearing 2 oblong obtuse entire scales near the base. pistil: ovary sub cylindric, becoming ellipsoid, epigynous tube infundibuliform; placentae extending almost the whole length of the cell; ovules caudate.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1979. Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.