plant stemless, flowering 7–12 dm high. leaves polymorhpic, the outermost with small orbicular dark castaneous sheaths and short linear pectinate-serrate blades, grading upward into entire bladeless elliptic sheaths, the innermost leaves functional, to 45 cm long; blade deciduous (?), linear, caudate-attenuate, narrowed slightly toward base but not at all petiolate, 15–20 mm wide, entire, obscurely channeled, glabrous above, sparsely white-flocculose beneath. inflorescence: peduncle erect, slender, glabrous; peduncle bracts erect, exceeding the internodes but covering little of the peduncle, lanceolate, caudate-attenuate, green; fertile part simple, lax, 26 cm long, glabrous; rachis slender, slightly flexuous; floral bracts lanceolate, acuminate, 35–55 mm long, exceeding all the pedicels, subchartaceous, violaceous. flowers suberect, light brownish violet; pedicel slender, 20 mm long; sepals lance-oblong with a prominent mid-rib, acuminate, 27 mm long; petals zygomorphic, arching, to 85 mm long, broadly acute, naked. stamens included, the anthers linear, 13 mm long. pistil: ovary over 2/3 superior; ovules caudate.Edited from : Smith & Downs 1974. Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae) in Flora Neotropica.