Plants 100–130 (180) cm high. Corms single or in chains of 2–3, 2.5–4(5) cm in diameter; tunics brown, membranous, later fibrous above. Foliage leaves several, basal and cauline, half to two-thirds as long as the stems, lanceolate, plicate, narrowed and thickened below into a pseudopetiolate base; cauline leaves shorter than the basal. Stem inclined above, relatively thick, up to 9 mm in diameter, 2–5-branched, the branches nearly horizontal. Spikes rather congested, 10–22-flowered, flexuous; bracts firm, green, becoming reddish-brown, 7–10 mm long, exceeding the internodes, the outer obtuse or apiculate, the inner shortly 2-toothed. Flowers orange to red or red-brown, zygomorphic, facing to the side; perianth tube curved, (25)30–40(45) mm long, tubular in the lower half, infundibuliform above; tepals unequal, obtuse, the uppermost longest, (10)15–18 × 6–9 mm, the upper laterals 7–10 mm long, spreading, the lower 3 tepals 6–12 mm long, the median one smallest. Stamens unilateral, arched under the uppermost tepal; filaments 25–40 mm long; anthers 6–8 mm long. Style dividing near the anther apices, the branches 4–6 mm long. Capsules 12–14 mm long, globose; seeds 4 mm in diameter, globose or angled.
