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Persistent herb with a stout rhizome 1-4 cm long and tough fibrous roots. Leaves mostly lanceolate, broadest above the middle, narrowed gradually into the petiole, to 30 cm long, the margins entire or with small irregularly spaced teeth, the petiole forming less than half the length; pubescent with spreading whitish trichomes to 1 mm long, especially on the ribs beneath and at the top of the petiole area. Scape slender or stout, mostly exceeding the leaves, to 40 cm long, often curved basally, sparsely pubescent when mature, densely so when juvenile, especially near the fertile portion. Flowers in a dense or open spike occupying about half the scape; bracts less than one-third the length of or as long as the sepals, strongly keeled with a small hyaline margin; sepals 2-3 mm long, strongly keeled apically, the apex obtuse; corolla lobes open or (Panamanian collections) closed, narrowly deltoid, exceeding the calyx, con-spicuous orange-brown when dry. Pyxis circumscissile about the middle, well below the sepal tips, the top covered by the closed corolla which falls with the seeds; seeds 3, olive-green, elliptical-lenticular, ca 2 mm long, shining, minutely impressed-punctate.
A herb. It keeps growing from year to year. It grows 20 cm tall and spreads 20 cm wide.
Pending.
