plant - forming clumps, with strong spreading roots, saxicolous, stemmed, flowering to 18 cm high, stem much longer than the rosette; rosette erect, secund, to 15 cm long, 8 cm wide. leaves - densely polystichous, grey, both sides dense almost pruinose scaled, the bottom side strongly nerved, plump, the edges with long scales, 10 cm long; sheath - indistinct from the blade, to 2.5 cm long, 1.5 cm wide, erect, extensively covering the stem; blade - to 8 cm long, thin triangular, strong grooved, awllike acuminate, the edges trimmed with assymetrical scales, erect to secund, recurved. inflorescence: peduncle - almost missing, to 0.5 cm long; peduncle bracts - densely imbricate, leaf-like, the top ones like the flower bracts; primary bracts 1/2 as long as the spike; inflorescence- simple, shorter than the leaves, densely distichous, complanate, elliptic, 5–6 cm long, to 1.5 cm wide, 5–7 flowered. flowers erect, almost sessile, no scent; floral bracts - much longer than the sepals which they completely cover, almost erect, lance-like acuminate, 2.6–3.1 cm long, 1 cm wide, leathery with transparent edges, not scaled, not keeled, strongly nerved, green or violet-red, when dying becomes straw coloured; sepals - lance-like acuminate, thin membranous, naked, nerved, free, the back ones strongly keeled, to 2 cm long, 0.5 cm wide, bottom half green, upper half pink; petals - white, erect, forming a narrow tube, almost tongue shaped, to 3.5 cm long, at base to 2 mm wide, the blade 4–5 mm wide, the edges weakly finely notched, the tip spreading or recurved, paper thin. pistil: style & stamen - as long as the throat of the petals, at the same time the anthers and stigma lobes exceed the flower; style* 2.5 cm long, filiform, base white, top half brownish; stigma tiny, 0.8mm, lobes bent backwards, light brown. stamens: filament 2.4 cm long, filiform, pleated and stuck together, white; anther yellow, 6 mm long, 0.8 mm wide, joined at the base; ovary - white, 5 mm high, egg shaped.Edited from : Ehlers 1987c. Tillandsia alberi Ehlers spec. nov. .