leaves very elongate, arising from a rather broad sheath, broadly linear, acuminate, with a spinulose margin, 3–4 cm wide at the base. inflorescence: peduncle rather stout, with the sheaths and bracts very faintly farinose or scarcely so; at the base bearing lanceolate-linear, acuminate leaves (17–10 cm long), followed by shorter, broad sheaths, ovate at the base and long-acuminate, exceeding the internodes (8–4 cm long); fertile part elongate, paniculate; primary bracts large, ovate, long-acuminate, with the lower ones having a shortly spinulose-denticulate margin, the upper ones acute or minutely mucronulate and nearly entire, gradually becoming smaller, 7–3 cm long, the uppermost shorter, apparently suffused with pink; spikes concealed by the very broad bracts, several-flowered (7–10 flowers), crowded, 3 cm or more long; floral bracts rather large, concealing the sessile or subsessile flowers, nearly equalling the calyx, broadly ovate (the lowest) or ovate-lanceolate to broadly lanceolate (the upper ones), minutely mucronulate, entire, 1.5–2 cm long, 1–1.8 cm wide. flowers: sepals unequal, somewhat rigid, boat-shaped, lanceolate, entire, with a slight keel, very shortly ending in a pungent mucro, glabrous, about 17 mm long; corolla exserted in its upper part, 30–32 mm long;.Edited from (16-10-2026): Mez 1935. (protologue) Bromeliaceae (part 1-4) in Engler, A. (ed) Das Pflanzenreich.