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Description:
Plants 500–2 000 mm high. Corm depressed-globose, 30–50 mm diam.; tunics coarsely netted. Stem simple or usually with a few suberect or diverging branches, sometimes with 1 to several cormlets in axils of lower leaves and branches, or at the spike nodes (var. bulbillifera). Leaves 4 to 6, lower 3 or 4 ± basal, uppermost leaf partly or entirely sheathing stem, ± half as long as spike, lanceolate, 12–25(–35) mm wide, midrib and margins lightly to moderately thickened and hyaline; bract-like cauline leaves 2 or more, progressively smaller above, sheathing. Spike up to 25-flowered; bracts herbaceous and usually reddish, dry and brownish above, (18–)24–30 mm long, inner as long as or slightly longer, acute or barely forked apically. Flowers zygomorphic, usually orange or red, sometimes pink or purple (rarely yellow mutants recorded); perianth tube with lower part 22–25 mm long, emerging shortly from bracts, upper part horizontal, sub-cylindric, 20–25 mm long, (4–)5–6 mm diam. at mouth, usually with longitudinal ridges between filament bases; tepals oblanceolate to obovate, 21–26 × 8–15 mm, all widely spreading or dorsal somewhat hooded. Filaments unilateral and arcuate, 35–45 mm long, well exserted from tube; anthers 8–10(–12) mm long, violet. Style dividing near between middle of anthers, branches 6–7 mm long. Capsules large, elongate-oblong, 22–30 × 7–9 mm. Seeds (10–)15–18 × 2–4 mm, with distal wing well-developed and pale. Flowering time: mainly September to November.
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