Plant 6-9 din. high. Leaves about 6, some much reduced, ovate, abruptly acute, brown, other leaves 6-9 dm. long, petiolate; sheaths triangular-ovate, brown-lepidote; petioles 2 dm. long, channeled, armed with small dark recurved spines, tomen-tose-lepidote beneath; blades lanceolate, acumi-nate, 5 dm. long, 5 5-60 mm. wide, entire, glabrous. Scape erect, stout, elongate. Scape-bracts with a large ovate base and long acumi-nate blade, subglabrous, especially the upper ones brownish purple. Inflorescence simple, sub-spicate, obtuse, densely many-flowered, 2-3 dm. long, 3-5 cm. thick. Rhachis finely tomentose-lepidote, wholly concealed. Floral bracts broad-ly ovate with a narrowly triangular divergent blade, 5-7 cm. long, much exceeding the sepals, glabrous, deep reddish purple to bright red or rarely yellowish. Flowers subsessile. Sepals ob-long, abruptly acute, short-mucronate, 25 mm. long, narrowly winged near apex, minutely lanate. Petals linear, broadly acute, exceeding the stamens, unequal, to 77 mm. long, pale yellow, bearing a large bidentate scale at base. Ovary 3/4 superior. Ovules long-caudate. Capsule broadly ovoid, 13-20 mm. long.
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