leaves about 20 in a dense sub fasciculate rosette, 1–1.5 m long, exceeding the inflorescence; sheath distinct, broadly ovate, covered with minute appressed brown scales, sometimes purplish above; blade ligulate, broadly rounded and triangular apiculate, to 55 mm wide, covered with minute whitish more or less fused scales especially beneath, laxly serrate with antrorse curved spines to 2.5 mm long. inflorescence: peduncle erect, 7–11 mm in diameter, white-tomentose; peduncle bracts erect, longer than the internodes but so narrow as to expose the peduncle, ovate, acuminate, entire, membranaceous, whitish or brownish; fertile part simple, cylindric or ellipsoid, obtuse, densely many-flowered, 7–8 cm long, 4 cm in diameter; rachis white-tomentulose; floral bracts broadly ovate, acuminate, enfolding the ovary and the lower ones exceeding the sepals, entire, red, subglabrous, membranaceous but thickened toward apex. flowers polystichous, sessile, 2 cm long; sepals asymmetric, subelliptic, 5 mm long without the 2 mm terminal spine, short-connate, red; petals ligulate, broadly obtuse, yellow, bearing 2 fimbriate scales at base. stamens included. pistil: ovary ellipsoid, epigynous tube large; placentae central; ovules obtuse.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1979. Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.