plant rupicolous, flowering ca 60 cm tall, propagating by basal shoots. leaves 15 to 20, thinly coriaceous, suberect-arcuate to subspreading, contorted toward the apex, forming at base a broadly funnelform to subglobose rosette; sheath broadly elliptic to suborbicular, 6–7 x 5–7 cm, densely and minutely white-lepidote, greenish- castaneous outside, darker colored inside; blade narrowly triangular-lanceolate, 15–23 cm long, 2.5–3 mm wide at base, adaxially green, abaxially purplish-green, both sides densely covered by cinereous trichomes forming conspicuous crossbars mainly abaxially, apex acuminate-caudate, strongly recurved. inflorescence: peduncle erect, ca 50 cm long, ca 3 mm in diameter, rigid, glabrous; peduncle bracts the basal ones foliaceous, distinctly exceeding the internodes, the upper ones subovate-lanceolate, acuminate-caudate to acute and apiculate, 20–40 x 10 mm, erect, enfolding the peduncle with the base only, densely white-lepidote, from equaling to distinctly shorter than the internodes; fertile part simple, subdense, suberect, ca 13 cm long, rachis terete, flexuous-geniculate, purplish-green, glabrous, ca 3 mm in diameter, internodes 10–20 mm long; floral bracts broadly ovate, membranous, ca 17 x 13 mm, apex subacute, base nearly truncate, not completely enfolding the flowers, ecarinate, green with purplish-wine spots near the margins, glabrescent, finely nerved, about equaling 1/3 sepal length. flowers 5 to 9, distichously arranged, strongly secund with the floral bracts at anthesis, faintly if at all fragrant, ca 40 mm long (when petals extended), anthesis nocturnal, pedicels ca 7 mm long, ca 5 mm in diameter, green; sepals subelliptic, emarginate, 17–18 x 10 mm, inconspicuously white-lepidote inside, green except for the purplish-wine exposed margin, membranous toward the apex, free, ecarinate; petals ovate, apex narrowly emarginate, ca 31 x 16 mm, suberect-recurved at anthesis and forming a campanulate corolla ca 28 mm in diameter at apex, free, pale greenish except for a purplish-wine central-apical abaxial zone, bearing at base 2 irregularly long-bidentate, ca 8 x 2.5 mm appendages. stamens deeply included, at anthesis arranged in 2 lateral rows, equaling the stigma; anther linear, ca 7 mm long, base sagittate, apex obtuse, dorsifixed near the base. pistil: stigma convolute-bladed, green, ca 1.5 mm in diameter; ovules caudate. fruits subcylindrical, 45–50 x 6 mm, long acuminate.Edited from : Siqueira & Leme 2007. (protologue) Fragments of the Atlantic Forest of Northeast Brazil - Biodiversity, Conservation and the Bromeliads .