plant epiphytic, acaulous, to 60 cm tall when flowering. leaves many, in a tight infundibuliform rosette, erect, exceeding the inflorescence; blade up to 4 x 1 - 3 cm, linear-lanceolate, entire except rarely with one or two small teeth c; 0 • 5 mm long, finely lepidote, apex acuminate with a spinose tip; sheath up to 12x4 cm, elliptic, entire, dark purplish within at base, densely lepidote. inflorescence: peduncle erect, slender, to about 20 cm long, 2–5–3 mm diam., glabrous; peduncle bracts 2–2–3–2 x 0–4–0–5 cm, lanceolate, amplexicaul, imbricate, minutely lepidote, pale green with a pink apex; fertile part 6–5–15 x 9 cm, pyramidal, once-branched in lower two-thirds with spreading, laxly flowered branches, glabrous, flowers sessile; primary bracts as peduncle bracts, up to 2 7 cm long; floral bracts 1–5- 2 x 1 mm, broadly lanceolate, subamplexicaul. flowers: sepals free, 7 x 3 5 mm, asymmetrie, mucronulate, pale yellowish-green, mauve-tipped, with broad lateral wing; petals c; 13 x 2–5 mm, limb ovate-lanceolate, acute, pale mauve fading bright pinkish-purple, naked. stamens: filament of free stamens 7–5 mm long; anther 4 mm long. pistil: ovary 6 - 7 x 4 mm, ellipsoid; (fig; 2).Edited from : Philcox 1992a. (protologue) Notes on South American Bromeliaceae .