plant a terrestrial, acaulescent, flowering to at least 1 m tall. leaves so far as known monomorphic, rosulate, spreading, pseudopetiolate, to 2 m long, entire throughout; sheath elliptic, 8–10 x 2–3 cm, nerved, castaneous especially abaxially, brown-lepidote; blade with a 17–20 cm x 8–15 mm, channeled, sparsely lepidote pseudopetiole; the upper portion of the blade lanceolate, attenuate, 8–10 cm wide, basally channeled, nerved, abaxially with conspicuous transverse veination, very sparsely lepidote, green. inflorescence: peduncle spreading, arcuate, creeping on the soil (van der werff!), 25 cm x 10–13 mm, brown-lepidote; peduncle bracts erect, subfoliaceous, narrowly elliptic, long-attenuate, very thin coriaceous, castaneous toward their base, brown-lepidote, much exceeding the internodes but scarcely concealing the peduncle, soon drying; fertile part erect, simple, cylindrical, 35 x 4–6 cm, densely polystichous-flowered, red (van der werff!); floral bracts elliptic, acute, 50–60 x 16–22 mm, very thin coriaceous, nerved, scattered brown stellate-lepidote, somewhat lustrous, entire, red; erect and densely imbricate prior to anthesis, spreading with the flowers at anthesis and becoming tattered and deciduous after anthesis. flowers with a stout 2–3 mm pedicel, erect prior to anthesis, spreading at ca 45° from the axis at anthesis, becoming pendant and appressed to the axis after anthesis, red (van der werff!); sepals free, broadly elliptic, acute to apiculate, 30–36 x 11–14 mm, the adaxial pair carinate with the keels decurrent on the pedicel, brown-lepidote, nerved, thin-coriaceous; corolla somewhat zygomorphic, arcuate; petals oblanceolate, obtuse, 60–65 mm long, naked, the margins paler. pistil: ovary more than 1/2 inferior. fruits unknown, ovules triangular, falcate.Edited from (16-02-2023): Luther 2007. (protologue) Miscellaneous new taxa of Bromeliaceae (XVIII) .