plant stemless, spreading by very stout stolons. leaves subfasciculate erect 6- 7 dm long,much exceeding the inflorescence, densely and minutely appressed-lepidote; sheath large, narrowly elliptic, entire, scarcely darker than the blades; blade ligulate, broadly acute and mucronate, not at all narrowed at base, to 6 cm wide, densely serrulate, green. inflorescence: peduncle slender, to 35 cm long, white-flocculose; peduncle bracts densely imbricate, large, oblanceolate, acute, membranaceous, bright rose, denticulate toward apex, flocculose at base; fertile part erect, simple, densely ellipsoid, 8–10 cm long, 4 cm thick; floral bracts erect, the lower ones like the peduncle-bracts and much exceeding the flowers, the upper narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, entire, equaling the sepals or slightly shorter. flowers sessile; sepals free, strongly asymmetric, 23 mm long including the 6 mm erect mucro, with the ovary densely white-lepidote; petals 3 cm long, bearing 2 dentate scales at base, white or pale lilac. pistil: ovary subglobose, strongly compressed and trigonous, to 17 mm long; epigynous tube crateriform; placentae subapical; ovules caudate.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1979. (protologue) Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.