Plant succulent, acaulescent or shortly caulescent, the stem simple, rarely branched. Leaves 20-30, densely rosulate, arcuate-erect, lanceolate-ensiform, up to 60 cm long, 9 cm broad at base; upper surface dull grey-green, fiat or slightly concave, immaculate, smooth; lower surface convex, immaculate, smooth except sometimes for a few thorns in median line near apex; margins armed with isolated pale brown teeth springing from a white base, the teeth pungent, deltoid, 4 mm long, 10-15 mm distant, more crowded low down, more distant near apex, the interspaces straight, the colour of the leaf. Inflorescence up to 1.3 met. high, simple in young plants, or with 1-2 branches in mature specimens, occasionally 2 from a rosette. Peduncle flattened low down and up to 4 cm diam., clothed below the racemes with numerous thin, scarious, brown, many-nerved sterile bracts up to 20 mm long, 8 mm, broad at base. Racemes densely multi-flowered, cylindric slightly acuminate, up to 36 cm long, 6-7 cm diam. Brads narrowly lanceolate, brown, thin, scarious, many-nerved, 18 mm long, 5 mm broad at base. Pedicels green, 5 mm long. Perianth 30 mm long, reddish-orange, slightly paler underneath, cylindric-ventricose, slightly clavate, very shortly stipitate at the base and slightly tapering into the pedicel, the mouth slightly upturned; outer segments free for 15-17 mm, obscurely 5-nerved, turning brownish at apex, the margins paler, the apices sub-acute, the 2 upper more closely grouped with their apices slightly falcately connivent; inner segments free but dorsally adnate to the outer for 10 mm, the upper segment with 3 congested nerves forming a reddish keel, the 2 lower segments with 3 crowded nerves forming a greenish keel turning brownish at apex. Filaments flattened, the 3 inner narrower and lengthening in advance of the 3 outer, pale lemon within the perianth, the exserted portion brownish. Anthers the 3 inner and 3 outer in turn exserted up to 13 mm Style filiform, pale lemon throughout, the stigma exserted up to 14 mm. Ovary pale green, 5 mm long, 3 mm diam. at base, finely 6-grooved.
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Plants stemless to short-stemmed, 400-700 mm tall excluding inflorescence, solitary. Leaves 20-30, arcuate-erect to arcuate-incurved, lanceolate-ensiform, 400-600 x 60-90 mm, slightly channelled to D-shaped in section, glaucous to dull green, lower surface sometimes with apical median line of few prickles. Inflorescence of very dense, cylindric racemes, 1-3-branched, 1.0-1.3 m tall; bracts narrowly lanceolate, 18-20 x 5-6 mm, ±5-nerved. Flowers orange in bud, chrome-yellow at flowering, 24-30 mm long, cylindric-ventricose, mouth slightly narrowed and upturned; outer segments free for ± half their length, inner segments free but dorsally adnate to outer segments in lower third; pedicels 5-6 mm long. Anthers exserted up to 13 mm. Ovary ±5 x 3 mm, pale green; style exserted 4-14 mm. Fruit not seen.
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