Brunsvigia josephinae [ker-gawl.]

Above ground, oval, often without a distinct neck in the wild state, up to 30 cm long and 20 cm diam., with a dense covering of membranous tunics. Leaves (absent at time of flowering) 8-20, suberect, oblong, the largest up to 90 cm long and 5-20 cm broad, the younger inner ones smaller, glaucous, glabrous, smooth, entire, thick, closely veined, sometimes slightly undulate towards the tip, curved. Peduncle compressed usually up to about 45 cm tall but even up to 90 cm, 2.5-5 cm broad. Spathe-valves 2, tinged with red, 15 cm long, keeled, drying as flowers develop. Umbel with 20-30 flowers or occasionally with up to 50 or 60 and the larger ones with flowers spreading almost into a full circle with a diameter of nearly 1 m. Pedicels reddish-violet, 25 cm long and up to 30-40 cm on maturity, 1.25 cm thick near the base and narrowing gradually to the ovary, 6-ribbed when fresh and 3-angled when dry. Perianth red with dull yellowish-orange on the outer surface towards the tube, 7-9 cm long, with a subcylindric tube 1 cm long but with the margins of the lobes free slightly further to the base; outer lobes linear-lanceolate, 11-12 mm broad near the base; inner lobes linear, acuminate, 9-10 mm broad, spreading and recurving towards apex to variable degree, 3 upper lobes often strongly recurved. Stamens shorter than the perianth with the bases of the filaments united to the perianth into a tube for 1 cm; anthers oblong, violet-purple before dehiscence, 1.5-2 cm long. Style finally slightly longer than the filaments. Ovary oblong or turbinate, not strongly angled, 2-2.5 cm long, 1.25-1.5 cm broad; capsule membranous, not strongly angled, up to 4 cm long and 2.5 cm broad across the angles, often splitting irregularly on dehiscence.