plant acaulis, flowering up to 30 cm high, leaves many, forming a flat rosette up to 10 cm high, 40 cm diam, sheath distinct, rounded oblong, up to 4 cm long, 3 cm wide, both sides with lax pale brown lepidote. leaves: blade recurved, linear, running out to an acute tip, up to 30 cm long, 2 cm wide next to sheath, both sides light green, beneath scattered lepidote, peduncle 15–20 cm long, slender, green, glabrous, peduncle bracts distinctly different from the rosette leaves, densely appressed to the peduncle, longer than the internodes, the bottom ones with a green blade 0.5 cm long, the upper ones dark crimson, green tipped, scattered lepidote, inflorescence simple or once-branched, spikes lateral 2 ( –4) suberect, 15–20 cm long, up to 3 cm wide, primary bracts erect, similar to the peduncle bracts, 3–4 cm long, acuminate, longer than the short white peduncle of the lateral spike, spikes flabellate, the terminal spike up to 15 cm long, 12–15 flowered, 1.5–2 cm wide, lateral spikes shorter, barely up to 5 cm long, rachis excavated, glabrous, intense crimson; floral bracts distichous, densely imbricate, up to 3.2 cm long, 0.9 cm wide, carinate, acuminate, lightly nerved, the base intense crimson, the upper third white, underneath scattered lepidote, above white, flowers white, sessile, up to 3.3 cm long, sepals white, acuminate, shorter than the floral bracts, 2.6 cm long, free, adaxial pair carinate. flowers: petals a little longer than the floral bracts, white, violet tips, erect, 2 very small ligules at the base. stamens: anther and style enclosed.Edited from : Rauh 1976a. Bromelienstudien (Mitteilung 5). I. Neue und wenig bekannte Arten aus Peru und anderen Ländern .