Monocarpic or short-lived perennial herb, often with short, stout trunk at flowering (to c. 90 cm high in cultivation) and terminal lf rosette. Petioles to c. 40 cm long and 2 cm diam. near base, brownish red, puberulent, becoming deflexed, but remaining turgid with age (thus appearing like prop roots after laminae die). Lamina palmately lobed almost to base, to c. 25 × 30 cm, ± broad-ovate to nearly suborbicular, finely puberulent, mainly on the reddish veins; lobes 5, variously pinnately incised, with lower secondary lobes extending to base. Infl. an immense, dense, rounded panicle to c. 1 m high with both peduncles and pedicels elongated and densely covered with long, patent, purple, glandular-viscid, white-tipped hairs. Fls shallowly funnelform. Sepals 6.5-8 mm long including awn, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, the inner with pink hyaline margins, with hairs as on pedicels; apex mucronate. Petals 12-18 × 9-11 mm, broad-obovate, pink with crimson veins; claw 1/4-⅓ limb, crimson; apex rounded. Filaments crimson; anthers dark purplish. Mericarps 3-4 mm long, glabrous, alveolate with prominent ridges. Seed smooth.
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