a tree 12–15 ft. high; branches pilose especially at the insertion of the leaves, or, in the S. African specimens, usually glabrous; leaves 2 3/4–6 in. long, 4–10 lin. broad, oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, subacute or obtuse, narrowing to the base, coriaceous, prominently veined, pilose above and beneath, or more often glabrous; head often contracted into a scaly stipes, 2 1/2 in. long, about 2 1/2 in. in diam.; involucral bracts 11-seriate, densely silky-tomentose; outer broad-ovate, obtuse; inner oblong, or cuneate-oblong, convex, shorter than the flowers; perianth-sheath 1 1/4 in. long, dilated and 3-keeled below, fulvously villous, glabrous at the base; lip 9 lin. long, 3-toothed, villous to the tips of the teeth, excepting on the glabrous or glabrescent back; lateral teeth 1 1/4 lin. long; median tooth 3/4 lin. long, lanceolate, acuminate; stamens all fertile; filaments 1/2 lin. long, expanded, concave; anthers linear, 5 lin. long; apical glands 1/4 lin. long, elliptic; ovary 1 3/4 lin. long, obovate, covered by a dense tuft of long reddish-brown hairs; hypogynous scales 1/2 lin. long, ovate, obtuse; style 1 3/4 in. long, more or less curved and faintly grooved, glabrous; stigma 4–5 lin. long, filiform, obtuse, slightly bent at the junction with the style. null
