plant flowering to 0.6 m tall, clustering, short caulescent. leaves essentially monomorphic, rosulate(?), erect to spreading, pseudopetiolate, 35–95 cm long, glabrous adaxially, pale lepidote abaxially, dark green; sheath elliptic, entire, 4–8 x 3–5 cm, nerved, punctate lepidote, somewhat castaneous; blade with a 10–50 x 1 cm, entire, channeled pseudopetiole, the upper portion of the blade narrowly lanceolate, acute to attenuate, 3–4 cm wide, entire, somewhat plicate. inflorescence: peduncle erect to arching, 0.3–0.5 m long, 5 mm in diameter, pale lepidote; peduncle bracts lanceolate to elliptic, acute to attenuate, shorter than the upper internodes, pale lepidote abaxially, green; fertile part simple, laxly polystichous- flowered, to 20 cm long; floral bracts like the upper peduncle bracts, broadly elliptic, acute, 2–4 cm x 7–13 mm, equalling to exceeding the pedicels, sparsely brown lepidote, green. flowers with a slender 2–4 cm long pedicel, erect prior to anthesis, spreading to reflexed post-anthesis; sepals narrowly triangular, obtuse, 3 cm long, thick, nerved, obtusely carinate, sparsely brown lepidote, reddish; corolla strongly zygomorphic; petals acute, 6–7 cm long, each appendaged with a single, basal, bidentate scale, bright red. pistil: ovary ca1/3 inferior. fruits a capsule; seeds flattened, winged.Edited from : Luther 1991a. (protologue) Miscellaneous new taxa of Bromeliaceae (VIII) .