Information

Plants solitary, caulescent; stems simple, or rarely, branching from base, up to 1.7 m tall. Leaves in a rosette at apex of stem, recurved, stiff in texture, 0.5-1.5 m long, 35-120 mm broad, shallowly crescentiform in cross section, not keeled; margin strongly serrulate. Scape overtop­ping recurved leaves, stout, 200-300 mm tall. Raceme cylindrical to ovoid, very dense, 100-200 x 50-60 mm; buds pinkish red opening to whitish flowers (typical) or orange-red opening to yellow flowers (Eastern Cape [Transkei]). Bracts oblong-lanceolate to linear-oblong, 7-12 mm long, acute to obtuse at apex; margin entire or minutely eroso-denticulate near apex. Pedicels 2.5-3.0 mm long, elongating to 7-10 mm in fruit. Perianth subcylindrical, 22-32 mm long; lobes ovate, 2 mm long, not spreading. Stamens exserted by 10-13 mm at anthesis. Fruit subglo-bose, obscurely triquetrous, erect, 8 mm long. Flowering time: December to February, but at the two last-mentioned localities, flowering has been recorded in September and October. Figure 26.