Plant forming clumps, a single plant forming a stem, the bottom portion repeatedly branched, to 30 cm long to 1.5 cm diam., hanging, the top bent upwards or erect.
Leaves numerous, spirally arranged, dense upright, erect, bent over to the side, 2–4 cm long, 4–5 mm wide, very thick and succulent, grey, both sides dense grey lepidote, the edges with little asymmetric trichomes, outside with a weak middle keel.
Sheath indistinct, 3–6mm long, to 5mm wide, triangular, enclosing and hiding the stem.
Blade 1.5 to 3.5cm long, triangular acuminate, subterete, outside convex, the edges bent inwards, erect, overlapping like tiles.
Scape exceeds the leaves, to 5cm long, slender, glabrous, light green, erect or bent over, the few scape bracts laxly imbricate leaving the scape visible.
Scape bracts 2 cm long, 1.5 times as long as the internodes, elliptic, acute, densely lepidote.
Inflorescence simple, 3–4 cm long, 1.5 cm diam., sub lax, with 3–5 polystichous flowers, a little bent, green, glabrous rhachis visible.
Flower bracts 1.2–1.5 cm (max 1.9cm) long, 7–9 mm wide, exceeding the sepal, elliptic, cuspidate, the apex acute, the top portion keeled, yellow green, membraneous, nerved, inside lepidote, outside wholly or at least in the middle large grey lepidote.
Sepal 1.1–1.4 cm long, 4-5 mm wide, narrow elliptic, acute, yellow green, membraneous, nerved, the posterior pair keeled and joined for 1/2 to 2/3rds.
Petal 2–2.3 cm long, the blade 5–6.5 mm wide, almost round, narrowing to 3mm at base, the tip bent outwards, white.
Stamens enclosed. Filament 1–1.2 cm long, 1–1.2 mm wide, ribbon like, the upper half from the middle 2–3 times plicate, white.
Anther 2mm long, 0.3mm wide, linear, basifix, light yellow.
Pollen citron yellow
Style to 9 mm long, 0.4–0.5 mm diam., white.
Lobes erect, small, hardly wider than the style, white
Ovary 4–5 mm long, 2.5 mm wide, egg shaped, light green.
Type locality Brazil, State of Bahia, without exact location. Collected by R. Burle Marx
Holotype WU

Differs from T. araujei v. minima in
1. Leaves succulent, almost terete, grey not lepidote.
2. Floral bract smaller, yellow green not pink, cuspidate acuminate and keeled at tip, lepidote both sides.
3. Sepal yellow green, strongly nerved.
4. Petal shorter and wider, the blade a little stronger and bent outwards.