Search Results

Information Perennials forming large colonies. Rhizome and roots typical. Leaves distichous, erect, alternate, + 5-7, cylindrical, bases overlapping below, + 0,5-1,0 m long, hard, smooth becoming ribbed with age, grooved on inside, margins red with a white outer membrane; immature leaves of seedlings + 10, rosulate, linear-acuminate, gradually curving inwards at maturity, becoming distichous and cylindrical with an apical groove. Inflorescence a tall raceme, emerging from centre of leaves, up to ± 1 m high; peduncle with 5—7 narrow, pointed bracts. Flowers typical, numer­ous, in small, knobbly, bracteate clusters of ± 6—10 flowers each, clusters placed irregularly along peduncle; pedicels articulated in the middle, anthesis presumably at night as in other species. Perianth 18—35 mm long; tube 12-25 mm long; lobes 6-10 mm long, colour variously described as drab, greyish or `bluish mauve at base, red-streaked higher up, tepals cream inside with pale pink or mauve' (fide Pooley 1437). Fruit tvpical, globos

Information Acaulescent herb; rhizome branching underground, bright orange-red. Leaves 2–7(–8) per plant, mainly erect but older ones ascending to slightly recurving, the outer crescentic with acute edges to the concave channel, the inner cylindric, 50–120(–150)≈1.3–1.9 cm, channeled all down the face, the central leaf with almost indistinct channel, stiff, slightly rough to very rough with a surface like ground glass, gradually tapering to a sharp whitish-brown spine 0.6 cm long, flattish and hardly piercing, the channel much narrower than, or at the basal part sometimes nearly as broad as, the leaf; margins greenish whitish at the basal part, passing into obtusely rounded green edges at the upper part, sharp, with numerous slight grooves or impressed longitudinal lines on the sides and back, dull deep green to bluish green with age, transverse banding decreasing with maturity. Inflorescence a spike-like raceme with clusters in upper part, light greyish green, 25–50(–75) cm high; flowers 3–6 per cluster, very crowded, ascending-spreading; lower inflorescence bracts 2–3, 5–7.5 cm long; bracteoles 0.2–0.3 cm long, membranous, acute; pedicels 0.2 cm long or less, jointed at the apex. Flower tube pale greenish, 1.7–3.2 cm long, 0.3 cm wide, slightly inflated at the base, lobes white or greenish white and minutely dusted with purplish on the back at the apex, linear, 1.3–2 cm long, obtuse, revolute. Fruit a globose berry, 0.6–1.4 cm in diameter.

Information Large rhizomatous herb; stem absent or up to 5 cm long, up to 2.6 cm in diameter, concealed in imbricating leaf-bases. Leaves distichous, 4–12, slightly spreading fanwise, straight to slightly recurved, slightly compressed-cylindric, 65–105≈0.8–1.3 cm, 1.3–1.9(–2.2) cm thick from front to back, very rough, tapering to a sharp whitish or grey spine 0.8–1.3 cm long; leaf channelled down inner surface with acute dark brown edges but becomes shallow towards the base, membrane discontinous dark brown above, but whitish membrane towards the leaf base, with 11–15 or more grooves, dull bluish green with numerous darker longitudinal lines. Inflorescence a spike-like raceme 30–60 cm long, axis pale dull light green, 0.6 cm in diameter, minutely dotted with white; flowers 7–14 per cluster; lower inflorescence bracts 2–3, 1.9–3.8 cm long, tapering to a fine subulate point, produced on lower third of peduncle, distant, membranous; bracteoles subulate, 0.3–0.6 cm long; pedicels 0.4–0.5 cm long, persistent part 0.3–0.6 cm long, slender. Flower erect or ascending, pale dingy greenish in bud to purplish-blue on maturity; tube white to greenish, 0.7–1 cm long, lobes white on the inner face, green with minute dull purplish dots on the outside, linear, 1.2–1.6 cm long, obtuse, revolute, recurved in 3 lobes, but some in 5, becoming horizontal or distinctly drooping when expanded. Fruit a berry, greenish brown on ripening

Information Rosulate herb; rhizome subterranean, 0.6–1.2 cm in diameter. Leaves erect, (4–)5–10, twisted-distichous, compressed-cylindric, 30–60 cm long, ± 4.5–6 cm broad at the sheathing base, gradually tapering to the horny white terete and sharp spine, apex 1–1.7 cm long, margins deep red-brown, less than 1 mm wide, acute, edged with white, thin membrane in some parts, very wide at base in old leaves in lower half, more or less obtuse and green towards the apex, the red-brown edge of the margin run like a collar around the base of the white apical point, slightly rough to very rough, channelled on the face and with ± 7–12 shallow grooves on the rounded back, thickness from the bottom of the channel to the back measured ± one third of the way up 0.8–1.5 cm; channel as wide as leaf near the base and gradually narrowing upwards, especially narrow on the inner (i.e. youngest) leaf; scaly leaves 1–5, 3–10 cm long, stiff, rounded apex, more or less deltoid, broad-based and clasping, red-brown margin with wide white-brown membrane. Inflorescence a terminal spike-like raceme ± 50 cm long; axis pale green, terete, 0.5–0.6 cm in diameter; flowers (3–)4–6 per cluster; lower inflorescence bracts 3, membranous, ± 5 cm long, clasping two-thirds of the circumference at the base of the peduncle; bracteoles 3–10 mm long, fleshy at the base, and thence produced into a membranous acuminate early withering scale; pedicels 5–8 mm long, jointed about the middle, the upper part early deciduous with flower. Flower buds cylindric, 2.1–2.4 cm long, with a lustrous appearance, drab yellow or white faintly flushed with pink or mauve and drab yellow or white faintly flushed with a mauve and the lightly clavate tip greyish-olive; tube ± 8–10 mm long, lobes linear, 12 mm long, obtuse, strongly revolute near the base; filaments yellowish, ± as long as the perianth, anthers 2.5–3 mm long; style whitish, ± 2 cm long. Fruit up to 2 per cluster, a globose berry 0.6–0.9 cm diameter. Fig. 3, p. 29.