Small glabrous, glaucous shrublets up to 45 cm high, with ha d leaves, growing in dense clumps. Roots hard, woody. Stems short, branched, woody, densely covered with the congested, hard quill-like leaf-bases. Leaves 12-30 cm long, triangular in cross-section, hard, glaucous, glabrous, straight or with a lax spiral twist when young. Inflorescence a simple raceme up to 50 cm long; bracts minute, subulate, membranous, white; pedicels erect, up to 15 mm long in fruit. Flower with perianth forming a short cup at the base, segments white, spreading, keel broad and dark; filaments uniform, spreading; ovary with ca. 4 ovules per cell. Capsule globose, dry, 5 mm in diam., contracted at the base. Seeds about 2 per cell, smooth, grey.
Home