plant flowering to 1 m tall, densely clustering. leaves essentially monomorphic, rosulate, - spreading, pseudopetiolate, to 1.75 m long, bright green; sheath elliptic, to 55 x 30 mm, entire, nerved, ferruginous lepidote, castaneous; pseudopetiole 30–60 x 2–3 cm, entire or minutely serrate, pale ferruginous lepidote, channeled; blade the upper portion narrowly elliptic, long attenuate, 3–8 cm wide, channeled, abaxially pale ferruginous lepidote, minutely serrate toward the apex. inflorescence: peduncle decurved, 30–40 cm x 5 mm, red; peduncle bracts lanceolate, attenuate, thin, nerved, much shorter than the internodes, reddish or tan; fertile part erect, simple, cylindric, 25 x 17 cm, densely polystichously flowered, sparsely pale lepidote except for the petals; floral bracts broadly elliptic to ovate, acute to attenuate, 3–7 x 2–3 cm, thin, nerved, erect to reflexed, reddish or tan. flowers with a 5–10 mm pedicel, erect at anthesis, reflexed post-anthesis; sepals narrowly subtriangular, acute, 3 cm long, carinate, coriaceous, nerved, red; corolla curved, strongly zygomorphic; petals ligulate, acute, 7–8 cm long, each appendaged with a single 13 mm long basal scale, bright red with a thin white margin. stamens: anther to 15 mm long. pistil: ovary 3/4 superior.Edited from : Luther 1991a. Miscellaneous new taxa of Bromeliaceae (VIII) .