A stout, ± glabrous, lush, perennial herb 50 cm. or more tall.. Stems 3–5 mm. thick, reddish-brown. Internodes 4–8 cm.. Ocreae pustular, brown, papery, glabrous, readily tearing, truncate, fringed with pubescent setae 4–5 mm. long, the leaf inserted in the upper part.. Leaves petioled, minutely pustular, 6.5–9 × 2.5–4 cm., ± ovate or ovate-elliptic in outline but strongly and irregularly lobed, apically subacute with a membranous mucro, basally narrowed and decurrent (often unequally) to the petiole, glabrous above and below.. Petioles brown, 1–2 cm. long.. Inflorescence stout, elongated, 35–40 cm. long, the racemes single or in pairs from the lowest bract.. Bracts 4–6 mm. long, up to 4 cm. apart, foliaceous and terminally membranous, cup-shaped and rather abruptly widening at the base, truncate but produced dorsally into a lanceolate point ± 2 mm. long, without a terminal fringe of setae.. Pedicels exceeding the bracts by 1–2 mm.. Tepals green outside, cream inside, 4 mm. long, oblong with a short, ± hooded, acute apex.. Filaments 2 mm. long in long-styled flowers, 4 mm. in short-styled flowers, white, filiform; anthers 0.75–1 mm. long, linear.. Long styles 4 mm. long, connate for 2.0 mm.; short styles 1.5 (–2) mm. long.. Fruit 10 × 6 mm., trigonous, fusiform-conical, broadest towards the base, glabrous, with three short, slightly reflexed prickles 1–1.5 mm. long, spreading from below the middle when immature but distinctly from nearer the base when ripe.. Fig. 6/2–4, p. 35.
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