plant stemless, flowering to 2(–2.5)m high, forming an abundant group of broad funnel shaped rosettes to 1m high and 1.2m diam. leaves: sheath indistinct, to 25 cm long, ca 12 cm wide, topside light leathery brown, underneath greenish; blade lingulate, to 1m long, 9 cm wide next to sheath, tapering to a 1 cm long tip, green, top side glabrous, underneath scattered scales, scales with brown centre. inflorescence: peduncle erect, thick, carmine red , to 1m long; peduncle bracts imbricate, bottom ones sub foliate, the upper ones smaller, to 10 cm long; with large sheath and long triangular blade, adjacent to the peduncle, longer than the internodes, top side glabrous, beneath scattered lepidote, reddish green; fertile part erect, laxly tri- seldom quadripinnate, pyramidal, 1–1.2m long, 40–80 cm wide at base, with thick, glabrous, shiny carmine red axis and 15–17 reflexed or slanting side spikes, primary bracts cupshaped, sharply acuminate, the bottom ones to 7 cm long, shorter or as long as the sterile basal section of the primary arrangement, glabrous, lepidote at the tip, brownish red; secondary bracts ca 2.5 cm long, acuminate, sharply keeled at the back, the tip scattered scales otherwise glabrous, shiny carmine red; primary arrangement including the top spike 35–40 cm long, with 6 cm to 1 cm long, leafless, upperside flat, edged, yellow bottom section, and thinner, glabrous, shiny carmine red axis; secondary arrangement numerous, distichous, on flowering however becoming hanging secund, with thick, short, to 2 cm long sterile base; tertiary arrangement coming from the secondary arrangement; spikes 3–7 cm long with thin strongly flexuous, carmine red rachis and 1–2 cm long internodes, 6–2 flowered. flowers sessile, 4–5 cm long, laxly distichous, hanging, floral bracts shorter than the sepals, ecarinate, occasionally carinate at tip, to 2 cm long, light yellow, reddish streaked, smooth, (when dry clearly nerved), glabrous, the topside scattered lepidote; sepals pale yellow to white, rounded at tip, to2.2 cm long, 0.5 cm wide at base, ecarinate, joined for 2mm, glabrous; petals pale yellowish, tongue shaped, acuminate, reflexed at anthesis, to 5 cm long, joined into a tube for almost one half, with two serrated ligules at the base. stamens and stigma certainly shorter than the petal but at flowering exceeds the flower, filament joined to the petal for up to half its length, anthers violet.Edited from : Rauh 1977. Bromelienstudien (Mitteilung 7). I. Neue und wenig bekannte Arten aus Peru und anderen Ländern .