Stem erect, 3 dm. high, 3-5 mm. thick, becoming naked below as the leaves disintegrate. Leaves all alike, densely imbricate, spreading, 2 dm. long, disinte-grating with age but not regularly deciduous; sheaths elliptic, about 2 cm. long, sparsely and obscurely lepidote, their margins brown and membranaceous; blades linear, caudate-acuminate, 5-7 mm. wide, narrowly channelled, glabrous, very laxly and minutely serrulate toward apex. Scape very short. Scape-bracts im-bricate, resembling the leaf-sheaths, thin. Inflorescence simple, densely spicate, few-flowered, glabrous. Floral bracts broadly ovate, thin, nerved, exceeding the sepals. Flowers erect. Pedicels very short. Sepals asymmetric, lanceolate or narrowly elliptic, 18 mm. long, ecarinate. Petals 5 cm. long, obtuse, bright red, naked or with 2 vertical folds near base. Stamens exserted. Ovary over I/2 superior. Ovules obtuse.
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