plant flowering ca 15.0–150.0 cm tall. leaves: blade linear, long-attenuate, glabrous to densely covered beneath with scales, slightly narrowed above the leaf sheath, 1.0- 3.6 cm wide, ca 20.0 –100.0 cm long; sheath short, triangular to largely ovate, castaneous, glabrous or lepidote, 0.5–4.0 cm long. inflorescence simple, lax or dense, few to many flowers (ca; 4–70), glabrous or lepidote, 5.0–50.0 cm long; peduncle erect, slender or stout, glabrous or lepidote; the basal peduncle bracts foliaceous and imbricate; the upper narrowly triangular, acuminate, shorter to exceeding the internodes; floral bracts narrowly triangular, shorter to exceeding the length of the pedicels. flowers: pedicel slender, 0.8–3.5 cm long; sepals narrowly triangular, 1.5–3.5 cm long; corolla zygomorphic at the anthesis with petals erect, red or yellowish-white, acute, unappendaged, 5.0 –6.0 cm long. pistil: ovary superior; ovules bicaudate. fruits capsule septicidal; seeds bicaudate.Edited from : Weber 1984b. Die Bromeliaceae im Herbarium D.F.L. von Schlechtendals .