; 0 radical leaves narrow, strap-shaped, much elongated at the point, with margins here and there armed with small spines, especially towards the base, shining green on the upper surface, and covered with a white mealy substance on the under, a foot and a half or two feet long, recurved. inflorescence: peduncle two feet high, clothed with a white, loose, woolly substance, which easily wipes off; peduncle bracts at the lower part of the peduncle leaf-like, diminishing upwards, till they are only equal to the short pedicels. flowers rose-coloured, in a long terminal raceme, simple, or with two or three short 1–3-flowered branchlets at the lower part; pedicel three times shorter than the calyx, which is not half the length of the corolla, club-shaped, persistent after the flower falls off; petals strap-shaped, obtuse, with a small mucro, of equal length, furnished at the base with a scale-like appendix. stamens included, anthers linear. pistil: ovary triangular, 3-celled, with many ovulae; style the length of the stamens; stigmas 3, twisted together.Edited from : Baker 1852. (protologue) Pitcairnia alta. Native of the West Indies .