Phakamani Xaba of Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens visited the wild populations several times and came to a different view of the threat status.

It has been observed that collectors have removed many of the side shoots required for vegetative propagation, in the populations there are no young plants or seedlings and the seeds are always harvested before they reach the soil.

[citation needed] This frost-sensitive, clump-forming evergreen, perennial, herbaceous, plant can grow to 10m tall, with leaves measuring 2m by 0.6m.

Their simple, smooth-edged, elongated, about leathery, shiny green to greyish leaf blades have a length of up to 2 meters and a width of 40 to 60 centimeters.

The fruit is a woody capsule, splitting into three lobes to reveal black to brown, spherical seeds with a yellow/orange tufty aril.

[4] Homer Collar Skeels gave it the name Strelitzia alba in 1912 in the US Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin , 248, p. 57.