plant stout, flowering 1 m high. leaves more than 30 in a spreading rosette, 8–12 dm long; blade ligulate, rounded and apiculate, 4–6 cm wide, laxly serrulate, green and sparsely lepidote above, densely incanous-lepidote beneath. inflorescence: peduncle erect; fertile part 2–3-pinnate, pyramidal, interrupted at base, dense toward apex; primary bracts oblong-ovate, mucronulate, 8–10 cm long, 4–6 cm longer or shorter than the sterile bases of the lower branches, navicular, rose, sparsely incanous-lepidote beneath; lower branches, navicular, rose, sparsely incanous-lepidote beneath; lower branches to 22 cm long including the 9 cm peduncle, the axis laterally compressed, reddish; secondary branches to 13-flowered, upper branches 2–6-flowered; secondary bracts minute, abruptly apiculate; rachis flexuous to geniculate, incanous-lepidote with the ovaries; floral bracts mucronulate, 1–3 mm long, encircling the base of the ovary. flowers: sepals asymmetric with a broad lateral wing, short-mucronulate, (13-dry)17 mm long, yellowish toward apex; petals 35 mm or longer, yellow, becoming black with age, bearing 2 scales at base. pistil: ovary stout, 1 cm long, greenish.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1979. Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.