plant rosette, terrestrial, flowering up to 2m high, the rosette spherical, compact, up to 50 cm high, 40 cm diameter, densely caespitose, with up to 50 rosettes or more, acaulous; stems inconspicuous. leaves numerous, rigid, erect to ascending, the sheaths brown, widely ovate to subquadrangular, 3.5–5.5 cm long, 3.5–5.5 cm wide, lustrous, white-lepidote toward the top part, the blades clear green with occasionally red edges, long triangular, 20–30(–50) cm long, 1.5–1.9 cm wide, glabrescent on the face, minute white-lepidote on the back, spiny on the margins, acute, apiculate and pungent at the apex, the spines erect to curved, brown to brown dark, 5–6 mm long, 1.5–2 cm; apart. inflorescence terminal, but in the mature rosettes they appear to be lateral, since the shoots take place in the same part of the base, erect, compound, paniculate; the masculine ones 1.2–1.3 m high, 2-pinnate, with numerous spikes, peduncle cylindrical, 30 - 40 cm long, 2–2.5 cm diameter; peduncle bracts brown, triangular, 3–20 cm long, 1.5–3.5 cm wide, acute to acuminate, the basal ones densely imbricate and much longer than the internodes, the apical ones shorter than the internodes, the sheaths entire, the blades erose to spiny on the margins, densely lepidote at the base on the back, glabrescent on the face, spikes capituliform, 2–2.5 cm long, up to three protruding from the same node, the central spike with a thick rachis (ca; 2 mm) but lightly flattened, the laterals with the rachis thin (ca; 1 mm diameter) and cylindrical; primary bracts brown, ovate to long ovate, papyraceous, 2.5–7 cm long, 0.8 –1 cm wide, lepidote on the back, erose, acuminate, the spikes short, 0.8 - 3.5 cm long; floral bracts green, lanceolate to oblong, ca 4 mm long. flowers polystichous, divaricate, laxly disposed, numerous per spike, actinomorphic, pedicellate, the pedicels 2–3 mm long; sepals free, green, ovate to long ovate, 4.5–5 mm long, 2–2.5 mm wide, acute, rounded at the apex; petals free, green to yellow, elliptic to oblong, 6–7 mm long, 3–4 mm wide, rounded at the apex. stamens equal, but shorter than the petals, the filaments linear, slightly widened at the base, ca4- 5 mm long, the anthers yellow, oblong, curved, ca 1.5 mm long. pistil: ovary vestigial, abortive; the feminine ones ca 1.6 m high, 2 - 3-pinnate, with numerous spikes, peduncle cylindrical, 15–42 cm long, 1–3 cm diameter; peduncle bracts* brown, long triangular, 3.5–4 cm long, ca l cm wide, longer or slightly longer than the internodes, spikes erect, capituliform, one per node, 1.5–3.5 cm long; 1.9 cm diam; primary bracts* brown, wide triangular, papyaceous, 2–2.5 cm long, 1–1.3 cm wide, nerved, acute to acuminate floral bracts yellowish, triangular, 3–5 mm long; flowers* polystichous, densely disposed, erect, ca 20 per spike, actinomorphic, pedicellate, the pedicels obconic, 2–4 mm long, 2.5–3 mm diameter; sepals* wide triangular, acute and apiculate, 4–5 mm long; petals* triangular, ca 6 mm long, ca 3 mm wide, acute; ovary* not seen. fruits brown, lustrous, ovoid, ca 1 cm long, 7 mm diameter; seeds fusiform, clear brown, slightly rugose, ca 3 mm long, 1 mm wide, bicaudate, with one tail conspicuously longer.Edited from : Acta Bot. Mex.. (protologue) .