plant saxicolous, stemless, propagating by short basal shoots. leaves ca 36 in number, spreading, coriaceous, forming a dense round rosette; sheath inconspicuous but broader than the blades, very densely spinulose, inconspicuously and sparsely punctulate-lepidote, greenish-white toward the base; blade narrowly sublineartriangular, long acuminate-caudate, 25–40 cm long, 1.3–1.5 cm wide at base, not at all canaliculate, ca 2 mm thick near the base, green throughout before anthesis and rose at base at anthesis, opaque, abaxially densely and coarsely white-lepidote with trichomes slightly obscuring leaf color, adaxially subdensely to sparsely and inconspicuously white-lepidote, margins densely to sparsely spinulose, spines subtriangular-uncinate, antrorse, yellowish, 0.5–1 mm long, 2–7 mm apart. inflorescence once-branched in its outer portion, simple in its central portion, subumbellate, sessile, densely many-flowered, ca 4 cm in diameter; primary bracts the outer ones foliaceous, rose near the base and green toward the apex, the inner ones narrowly subtriangular, ca 40 x 18 mm, distinctly exceeding the fascicles, suberect, reddish-rose and inconspicuously whitelepidote toward the apex and whitish-green and glabrous at base, margins densely to sparsely and inconspicuously spinulose, spines to 0.5 mm in length; fascicles ca 14 in number, flabellate, complanate, shortly pedunculate, 23 x 11–15 mm (excluding the petals), 2- to 3-flowered; floral bracts triangular, rose toward the apex, inconspicuously and sparsely pilose-glandulose, triangular, acuminate, those of the fascicles distinctly carinate, margins densely and inconspicuously spinulose, ca 20 x 10 mm, about equaling the sepals, thinly coriaceous toward apex and membranous near the base, erect. flowers 21–24 mm long (including the petals), sessile, densely arranged, odorless; sepals subsymmetrical, narrowly lanceolate, acuminate-apiculate, 11–12 x 3.5–4 mm, free, entire, rose, inconspicuously and sparsely pilose-glandulose, the adaxial ones alatecarinate, the abaxial one carinate at least at base; petals narrowly subspatulate, apex rounded and slightly emarginated to remotely apiculate, 15–16 x 4 mm, free, white, at anthesis erect except for the subspreading distal portion, bearing 2 laminate, cupulate, obtuse, irregularly crenulate, upwardly to downwardly oriented appendages 5–6 mm above the base, as well as 2 conspicuous longitudinal callosities slightly shorter than the anthers. stamens: filament terete, white, the antepetalous ca 7 mm long, adnate to the petals for 5–6 mm, the antesepalous ones ca 11 mm long, free; anther ca 3 mm long, base obtuse, apex obtuse and minutely apiculate, fixed at 1/3 of its length above the base. pistil: stigma conduplicate, blades ca 1 mm long, erect, margins remotely crenulate; ovary ca 6 mm long, ca 4.5 mm in diameter at apex, trigonous, greenish-white, glabrous; epigynous tube crateriform, ca 1 mm long; placentation median to apical; ovules obtuse. fruits unknown.Edited from : Leme & Fontana 2010. (protologue) Studies on Orthophytum - Part XI: Three New Species from Bahia and Minas Gerais .