Plants solitary or in small groups, with stems sometimes up to 80 cm long, 10 cm diam., erect or decumbent, old leaves not persistent. Leaves about 20, densely rosulate, lanceolate-attenuate, sub-erectly spreading, 25-30 cm long, 8-9 cm broad; upper surface flat or slightly canaliculate, bluish-green with numerous irregularly scattered white oblong spots throughout, sometimes lineate; lower surface convex, usually paler than the upper surface, lineate and immaculate or obscurely to distinctly spotted, the oblong dull white spots irregularly scattered or sometimes arranged more or less in undulating interrupted transverse bands; margins sinuate-dentate, horny, armed with teeth up to 7 mm long, 10-20 mm distant, the teeth deltoid pungent brown usually straight, sometimes slightly deflexed. (Leaf sap dries reddish-purple.) Inflorescence a branched panicle up to 1 met. high, sometimes 2 simultaneously. Peduncle up to 3 cm diam. at base, brown, lightly covered with a grey powdery substance, branched about the middle with 4-8 arcuate-erect or sub-erect branches, the lowest branch subtended at base by an ovate-acute thin sub-scarious many-nerved bract up to 25 mm long. Racemes sub-capitate, broadly cylindric slightly conical, the apex rounded, about 12 cm long, 8-9 cm broad, unicoloured salmon-orange (R.C.S.) the youngest buds erect, older buds horizontally disposed, with the lowest open flowers cernuous. Brads deltoid-acuminate, thin sub-scarious white, about 7-nerved, usually slightly more than half the length of the pedicel. Pedicels 20-25 mm long, up to 30 mm in the fruit. Perianth salmon-orange, sometimes reddish, 35 mm long with a sub-globose basal swelling 8 mm diam., constricted to 5 mm above the ovary, thence slightly decurved, enlarging towards the throat, the mouth wide open; outer segments free for 9 mm, with paler orange margins and sub-acute spreading apices; inner segments dorsally adnate to the outer for three-quarters their length, broader than the outer and with more obtuse, more spreading apices, the pale marginal border twice as broad. Filaments pale lemon, flattened, the 3 inner narrower and lengthening in advance of the 3 outer. Anthers exserted up to 4 mm Style yellower than the filaments, with the stigma at length exserted up to 5 mm. Ovary 8 mm long, 3 mm diam., finely 6-grooved, green.
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Plants usually solitary, short-stemmed, 250-500 mm tall excluding inflorescence. Leaves ±20, spreading, 175-350 x 50-90 mm, blue-green in summer, blue-purple in winter, upper surface flat to slightly channelled, with many irregular pale spots, lower surface convex, lineate, with or without irregular spots. Inflorescence with ± 8 ultimate branches, up to 1 m tall; racemes cylindric-conical, dense, up to 175 mm long; bracts deltoid-acuminate, 14-20 x 2-4 mm, 5-9-nerved; pedicels 15-30 mm long, lengthening in fruit. Flowers 19-35 mm long, brilliant orange or sometimes varying from yellow to red, subclavate above basal constriction; outer segments free for 5-9 mm, inner segments adnate to outer. Anthers exserted 1-4 mm. Ovary 7-8 x 2-3 mm; style exserted 2-5 mm. Fruit ±16 x 8 mm.
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