Perennial herb, solitary, acaulescent. Leaves in a dense rosette, spreading; lamina to c. 25 cm long, 7–11 cm wide at the base, ovate-lanceolate, plus a dried twisted apical portion c. 10 cm long, dark green and conspicuously marked with transverse bands of elongated whitish spots on the upper surface, pale green and usually unspotted on the lower surface; margin with pungent deltoid red-brown teeth c. 6 mm long and 10–15 mm apart. Inflorescence erect to 75 cm high; peduncle stout, 3–4(7)-branched, the lowest branch occasionally rebranched; branches curving upwards, subtended by scarious or often leafy bracts to 5 cm long, with racemes all ± at the same height, or the lateral ones slightly overtopping the terminal one, and with a few sterile scarious bracts below each raceme. Racemes 3–4 × 10–12 cm, broadly capitate-corymbose, very densely flowered; bracts 15–20 × 4–6 mm, ovate-acuminate, scarious, many-nerved; pedicels 30–40 mm long elongating to 50 mm or more in fruit. Perianth bright orange-red, 35–40 mm long, c. 9 mm in diameter across the ovary, abruptly constricted just above then gradually widening, cylindric-trigonous; outer segments free for c. one-quarter, tips spreading. Stamens and stigma slightly exserted. Capsule and seeds not seen.
