; 0 stemless, flowering 12–15 dm; 1 high. leaves 5–7 dm; long; sheath large, broadly elliptic, tinged with dark purple; blade ligulate, acuminate, 6 m; wide, flat, glaucous green with purple splotches, soon glabrous above, densely cinereous-lepidote beneath. inflorescence: peduncle erect; peduncle bracts erect, densely imbricate and wholly covering the peduncle, the lower subfoliaceous, the upper lanceolate, red; fertile part densely once-branched, clavate or cylindric, glabrous except for the obscurely lepidote apices of the bracts, red except for the corollas; primary bracts ovate, acute, 5–6 m; long; spikes linear, acute, strongly complanate, 9–29 m; long with the larger ones higher, 2 cm; wide, densely many-flowered; floral bracts ovate, acute or acuminate, 25–35 mm; long, always exceeding the sepals, very sharply carinate, coriaceous, smooth, lustrous. flowers: pedicel 2 mm; long; sepals free, narrowly lanceolate, acute, 20–23 mm; long, the adaxial ones sharply carinate; petals linear, 30 mm; long, naked, the blade lavender. stamens included, the filaments straight. fruits cylindric, about equaling the sepals; p1; ii, fig; 16 spike x 1/2; fig; 17 sepal x 1.Edited from : Phytologia. (protologue) .