plant stemless but long-stoloniferous, flowering 55 cm high. leaves polymorphic, the outermost with small orbicular dark castaneous sheaths and short spiniform pectinate-serrate blades, grading upward into larger entire bladeless elliptic sheaths, the innermost functional, over 3 dm long; blade deciduous, linear, attenuate toward base and apex but not petiolate, to 20 mm wide, entire, soon glabrous. inflorescence: peduncle erect, slender, soon glabrous; peduncle bracts erect, longer than the internodes, the lower foliaceous, the upper lance-ovate, filiform-attenuate; fertile part simple, laxly few-flowered, nearly glabrous at anthesis; floral bracts broadly ovate, acuminate, exceeding the slender 10 mm long pedicels. flowers: sepals narrowly lanceolate, acute, 32 mm long, carinate with keels decurrent on the ovary; petals linear, broadly acute, naked, red. stamens included. pistil: ovary 2/3 superior; ovules caudate.Edited from : Phytologia. (protologue) .