Herb, 15-120 cm tall, rhizomatous corm as in S. puniceus, 1-7 cm in diameter. Leaves 2-8, forming a 5-60 cm long false stem with their sheathing parts as in H. puniceus. Lamina of foliaceous leaves, lanceolate to ovate, 8-45 cm long and 3.5-15 cm broad, apex acute to acuminate or rounded, base attenuate to subcordate, midrib prominent below, with 7-12 nerves on each side, leaf margin entire, sometimes undulated. The non-sheathing part of the petioles short, 2-11 cm long. Leaves may appear during or after anthesis. Peduncle, supported by the lowermost cataphylls, 12-75 cm long. False stem and peduncle often spotted with brown-red to dark violet dots. Inflorescence a semiglobose to globose umbel, 5-26 cm in diameter, consisting of 10 to more than 200 flowers, and surrounded by 5-10 involucral bracts. Bracts up to 6 cm long and narrow, less than 1.5 cm broad at anthesis, membranaceous, colourless or tinged with red, reflexed at an early stage of anthesis, erect only when the inflorescence is in bud. Ephemeral, filiform, hyaline bracts present between the flowers. Pedicel at anthesis (1.0-)1.5-4.5(-6.5) cm long. Ovary green, subglobose, 0.2-0.4 cm long. Perianth tube 0.4-2.6 cm long. Perianth segments spreading to reflexed, 1.2-3.2 cm long and 0.5-5.0 mm broad, usually 3-nerved, but sometimes 1-nerved and rarely 5-nerved, the number of nerves varying sometimes within the same inflorescence. Filaments filiform, 1.5-4.2 cm long at anthesis, exceeding the perianth segments, length much depending on stage. Anthers versatile, 1-3 mm long, yellow to red. Style when ripe a few mm longer than the filaments. Colour of perianth scarlet, turning more pink when fading, the segments often paler than the filaments. Fruit an orange to red berry with 1-3 seeds, 0.5-1.0 cm in diameter. Pedicels elongating in fruiting stage. The time of blooming follows the rainy season, as in S. puniceus, i.e. flowering specimens are especially frequent from March to May in the region from West Africa to Ethiopia, from November to March in Tropical East Africa, and from October to December in South Tropical and South Africa.
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Geophyte, up to 300 mm tall. Perianth tube usually shorter than 15 mm. Perianth segments usually narrower than 2.5 mm. Very small to robust plants. Flowers red.
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