Tree or shrub 1–2 m high. Stem erect, simple or branched, or forming shrubs with branches decumbent; stems and branches covered with withered leaf remains. Leaves in a dense rosette, spreading, becoming recurved; lamina c. 60–80 cm long, 7–10 cm wide at the base, lanceolate-attenuate, channelled, uniformly green or flushed entirely coppery-red in dry conditions; margins reddish, with cartilaginous deltoid teeth 1–2 mm long and 8–15 mm apart. Inflorescences 1–5, simple, erect to 1 m tall above the leaf rosette; peduncle with numerous sterile bracts below the raceme. Raceme 30–50 × c. 3 cm, cylindric, very densely flowered; bracts pale brown, c. 10 × 6 mm, ovate-acuminate; flowers ± sessile. Perianth greenish-yellow to golden-yellow, brownish in bud, c. 15 mm long, c. 10 mm in diameter at the mouth, campanulate, with much brownish nectar; outer segments free to the base. Stamens and stigma exserted c. 10 mm; stamens with filaments yellow and anthers orange, stigma yellow. Capsule c. 12 × 7 mm, ovoid, dark brown. Seeds c. 2 × 3 mm, black with very narrow pale brown wings.
