Plant 7 din. to over 1 m. high. Leaves many in a utriculate rosette, 6-12 dm. long; sheaths indistinct, ovate, brown, densely lepidote; blades ligulate, acute to rounded and apiculate, 6-12 cm. wide, serrate with straight spines to 2 mm. long, finely pale-lepidote especially beneath. Scape erect, stout, pale-furfuraceous. Scape-bracts to 18 cm. long, much ex-ceeding the internodes, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, entire, membranaceous, stramineous, pale-lepidote, the upper ones deflexed. Inflorescence amply paniculate, subcylindric to slenderly pyramidal, 3-7 dm. long, furfuraceous. Primary bracts linear to subfiliform, much shorter than the branches, membranaceous. Branches spreading, to 17 cm. long. Racemes laxly few-flowered. Floral bracts filiform, much shorter than the pedicels. Flowers divergent to spreading. Pedicels slender, 4-16 mm. long. Sepals broadly triangular-ovate, asymmetric, mucronate, 6 mm. long, free. Petals ligulate, emarginate, 10-15 mm. long, red or lilac, bearing 2 scales near base. Ovary globose or ellipsoid, 6 mm. long, often enlarging in fruit. Ovules borne at top of cell, caudate.
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