stems woody, 2–4 ft. long; branches woody, strongly ancipitous, densely leafy up to the top; leaves distichous, ensiform, acuminate, amplexicaul, firm in texture, ascending, 1/2 ft. long, closely ribbed; flowers in one or several congested oblong terminal heads, formed of closely imbricated, rigid, acute bracts; the outer smaller and sterile; the inner 1–1 1/2 in. long, containing a shorter obtuse brown spathe in their axil, subtending a single flower; perianth-tube 2 in. long, brownish downwards, blue-black upwards, glabrous, 1/4 in. diam. at the throat, segments 1/2 in. long, the outer clothed on the back with yellow-brown tomentum, the inner pilose at the tip only; stamens shorter than the perianth-segments; style not exserted; capsule glossy, castaneous, 1/3– 1/2 in. long. null
