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Herbaceous perennial, with one or several stems from a tuber, stems 0.01-1.00 m high. Leaves very oblique, elliptic-lanceolate to ovate, up to 250 x 150 mm, base cordate to truncate, apex acuminate to long acuminate, margins acutely, irregularly serrate or lobed, thin-textured, light bright green above, paler below; petioles up to 150 mm long. Flowers orange, up to 35 mm in diam., showy; male flowers with 4 tepals, female with 5. Flowering time Dec., Jan. Fruit cuneiform in outline.
Leaves sparsely to fairly densely hairy, petiolate; laminae 2·5–14 cm. long, ovate to lanceolate in outline, the margin often very shallowly lobed, always strongly serrated; petioles 0·7–8 cm. long; stipules 4–10 mm. long, ovate-oblong, fimbriate; bulbils sometimes present in leaf-axils.
Female flowers: tepals 5, coloured as in the male; outer ones 6–10 mm. long, elliptic or ovate, inner ones narrower; styles divided to 1/2–2/3 their length, the branches spirally twisted; ovary 4·5–9 × 2–5 mm., oblong, 3-winged; placentae entire.
Capsule 6–28 × 3–7 mm. excluding wings, ellipsoid or cylindrical; wings 6–14 mm. wide, subequal, triangular, the upper edge horizontal or at an acute or obtuse angle to the fruit axis; wing sometimes extending beyond capsule above and below.
A herb. It has one or several stems from a tuber. These are 1 m long. They are slender, fleshy and leafy. The leaves are oval to sword shape and 25 cm long by 15 cm wide.
Male flowers: tepals 2 + 2, orange or rarely yellow; outer pair 7–12 × 6–10 mm., suborbicular to ovate or elliptic; inner pair narrower; filaments c. 1·5 mm. long.
Flowers in terminal and axillary dichasial cymes with 1–2 dichasia; peduncles 2–6 cm. long; primary dichasial branches 1·3–2·5 cm. long.
Stems glabrous or sparsely hairy, sparingly branched, arising from a large ellipsoid tuber.
Bracts 4–12 mm. long, obovate, green, pink or brown, persistent and conspicuous.
Plants perennial, 10–35 cm. tall.
