Wachendorfia paniculata Burm.

Rhizomatous perennial herb; 0.1-0.9 m tall. Rhizome ovoid, up to 50 mm in diameter, appearing tunicate when dry. Leaves annual; narrowly lanceolate or linear to broadly falcate, erect or spreading, dull green to yellow-green, glabrescent to hairy, 3-nerved; 0.1-0.7 x 5-(20)-35 mm. Culm occasionally up to 1 m tall, slender to robust (3-15 mm diameter), erect, covered with short, dense simple hairs. Inflorescence a lax to dense racemose panicle, composed of 5-20 scorpioid cymes, each cyme bearing 1-7 flowers. Peduncles variable in number and length, longer at the base (may be branched again to form a secondary peduncle), up to 0.4 m long, slender to robust; pedicels short (less than 100 mm). Bracts scarious (often submembranous when fresh), often recurved, especially when old, 5-50 mm long, veined, long-acuminate, pilose, partly sheathing. Tepals apricot, yellow, or orange; slightly scented; 13.0-(21.0)-31.0 x 4.0-(10.0)-16.0 mm; inner abaxial tepal often slightly broader than the rest; outer adaxial tepal shorter, narrower, recurved; margins sometimes fringed with short cilia. Stamens from two-thirds to three-quarters the tepal length, spreading; anthers 2-3 x 0.8-1.0 mm. Gynoecium: style 15-22 mm long, as long as shortest tepal. Fruit an acutely three-lobed capsule; 10 x 5 mm. Seed spherical, coarsely pilose, brown, 2 mm in diameter.

Can be grown by divisions.