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Leaves variable; in plants which flower early the lamina is soft, 6–75 × 2–3.8 cm, lanceolate, acute, entire or minutely serrulate on margins and keel linear to lanceolate, not strongly ribbed; in plants which flower later the lamina is up to c. 100 cm long and 0.8–2 cm wide, linear, entire to serrulate on margins and keel, linear to lanceolate, strongly ribbed.
Raceme 2–5(10) cm long, ovoid, dense, usually interspersed with pale sterile bracts; bracts 8–25 mm long, lanceolate, acuminate, entire or ± toothed near the apex, thin white papery with a dark median vein (lower bracts sometimes with 3 veins); pedicels 1.5–3.5 mm long.
Rhizome horizontal with short, erect, well-spaced, shoot-bearing branches, the latter usually ± densely clothed in fibrous remains of old leaves; roots swollen, thinly fusiform, tapering at the base, much swollen towards the tip.
Peduncle 30–120 cm long, slender or stout, the later flowering specimens are more robust and have conspicuous sterile bracts below the flowers.
Flowers patent, orange to dull red in bud, later greenish to greenish-yellow, or in robust specimens from Zambia flowers orange.
Perianth 28–35 mm long, straight or slightly curved, slightly constricted above the ovary.
Plants solitary or with 1–3 shoots, not forming large clumps, 30–120 cm tall.
Stamens only very shortly exserted at anthesis, later withdrawn.
Style finally shortly exserted for up to 6 mm.
Seeds sharply angled, winged, c. 2.5 mm long.
Capsule c. 4 mm in diameter, globose.
