plant flowering to a height of c; 100 cm. leaves: sheath castaneous or purplish, elliptic, 13–35 x 11–14 cm; blade green, linear, 60–217 x 7–10 cm, apex pungent 10 mm long, laxly serrate with dark spines up to 4 mm long, some of them retrorae. inflorescence: peduncle stout, 13–57 cm long; peduncle bracts imbricate, broadly ovate, apex pungent 10 mm long, serrate; fertile part strobiliform, 7–17 x 8–12 cm long, compressed early in development and elongating 2–3 times during development; floral bracts red or greenish at the apices, ovate and slightly concave, 36–55 x 10–22 mm, long-attenuate with pungent apices 5–8 mm long, margin c.2/3 minutely serrulate. flowers compressed against each other, sessile, c; 40 mm long; sepals fused for 3 mm, yellow-greenish, lanceolate, slightly asymmetric, two of them carinate, 12–30 x 7-s mm, apex acute ending in a spine of 3–4 mm long; petals fused in the transition between claw and limb, white-yellowish, become dark after anthesis, spatulate, 25–35 x 5 mm, exceeding the calyx length. stamens six, filaments adnate to the petals. pistil: ovary inferior, compressed, laterally alate-carinate, epigynous tube c; 7–10 mm long; ovules many, caudate, smaller than 1 mm long. fruits: seeds fusiform, c; 3 mm long.Edited from : Bot. J. Linn. Soc.. .