leaves 5 dm long, green, wholly covered with coarse pale appressed scales; sheath broadly elliptic, 12 cm long; blade ligulate, acute, 3 cm wide, laxly serrate with spreading teeth 3 mm long. inflorescence: peduncle 4 dm long, 4 mm in diameter, densely white-flocculose; peduncle bracts thin, roseate, white-lepidote, the lower ones elliptic, about equaling the internodes, serrate near their apices, the upper ones lanceolate, much exceeding the internodes, massed below the inflorescence, entire; fertile part simple, densely strobilate, ellipsoid, 7–9 cm long, 35–40 mm in diameter, covered with white appressed scales; floral bracts suberect, broadly cymbiform, broadly acute or obtuse and apiculate, thick-coriaceous and bicarinate or tricarinate but near the apex rather thin and distinctly nerved, about equaling the ovary. flowers: sepals strongly asymmetric, 12 mm long, connate for 2 mm, unarmed; petals erect, 20 mm long, bearing 2 lacerate scales at base, fleshy, quickly turning black; epigynous tube broad, conspicuous; placentae apical; ovules long-caudate.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1979. Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.