plant terrestrial, flowering 21–25 cm tall, stemless, propagating by short basal shoots. leaves 8–15 in number, suberect-recurved, forming a lax rosette, slightly coriaceous mainly toward the base; sheath subtriangular, inconspicuous, ca 2 x 4 cm, pale colored, glabrescent toward the base, densely and coarsely white-lepidote at apex, densely spinulose toward the apex, spines reddish, membranaceous; blade sublinear, attenuate and ending in an acuminate-caudate apex, 43–65 x 2.5–3.3 cm, slightly narrowed and distinctly canaliculate toward the base, channel u-shaped, without a distinct thicker median zone, dark green except for the base sometimes reddish, upper and lower sides strongly contrasting, adaxially inconspicuously and sparsely to subdensely white lepidote, abaxially completely covered by a coarse layer of white trichomes, margins slightly undulate, densely spinose, spines 0.5–1 mm long, 2–5 mm apart, antrorsely uncinate, green to reddish. inflorescence: peduncle distinct, 11–15 cm long, ca 1 cm in diameter, green, densely pale lepidote; peduncle bracts foliaceous, suberect-arcuate, much exceeding the inflorescence, not hiding the peduncle; fertile part elongate, many-flowered, 6.5–7.5 cm long, ca 3.5 cm in diameter (not including the primary bracts); primary bracts foliaceous to subfoliaceous, spreading-recurved; fascicles 10–11 in number, pulvinate, 16–17 x 14–16 mm long (excluding the petals), ca 8 mm thick, 10- to 12-flowered, laxly disposed at base, densely disposed toward the apex; floral bracts triangular-ovate, acute and apiculate, submembranaceous toward the base and margins, green to reddish along the margins and the central keel, outside densely and coarsely white-lepidote toward the apex, inside glabrescent, about equaling the sepals, entire to remotely spinulose, alate-carinate (the outer ones) to obtusely if at all carinate (the inner ones), 13–15 x 9–12 mm. flowers all perfect, sessile, 24–27 mm long, strongly fragrant; sepals elliptic-lanceolate, acute and apiculate, 10–11 x 2.5–3 mm, connate at base for ca 4 mm, entire, pale colored but soon stramineous, pale brown-lepidote, the adaxial ones alate-carinate with keel decurrent on the ovary, the abaxial one ecarinate; petals spatulate, 20–22 x 8–9 mm, connate at base for ca 8 mm, white, the free lobes suborbicular, subacute and apiculate, distinctly exceeding the stamens, without a evident callosities, basal tube very narrow. stamens: filament ca 11 mm long, equally adnate to the petals for the length of its tube; anther ca 2.5 mm long, dorsifixed near the base, base sagittate, apex acute; pollen ellipsoid, sulcate, psilate or inconspicuously brochate. pistil: style surpassing the anthers; stigma simple erect, white, blades spatulate, erect, ca 1 x 0.5 mm, not contorted nor spiral, margins shortly crenulate to subentire; ovary 4–5 x 4 mm, trigonous, whitish, sparsely lepidote; epigynous tube lacking; placentation apical; ovules numerous, obtuse. fruits unknown; this new species is closely related to c; robertokautskyi, but differs from it by the leaf blades not crossbanded abaxially (vs; distinctly crossbanded abaxially by the alternation of white and brown trichomes), peduncle well developed, 11–15 cm long (vs; peduncle nearly absent), floral bracts entire or remotely spinulose toward the apex (vs; densely spinulose at apex), sepals shorter (10–11 mm x ca 15 mm long), anthers shorter (ca; 2.5 mm vs; 4–6 mm long); on the other hand, c; sanctaluciae is also related to c; scaposus, differing from it by its more numerous leaves, leaf blades twice as broad (2.5–3.3 cm vs; 1–1.2 cm wide), peduncle stouter, sepals shorter (10–11 mm vs; ca 16 mm long), petals with blades suborbicular and broader (vs; broadly elliptic; 8–9 mm vs; ca 7 mm wide).Edited from : Leme et al. 2008c. (protologue) Three New Cryptanthus Species from Espírito Santo and Bahia, Brazil .