It is native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa,[2] but it is well known as an ornamental plant grown in gardens for its showy spikes of flowers, and is an invasive species in areas where it has escaped cultivation.

Each corm produces three or four erect, lance-shaped leaves that measure up to 60 centimeters long by 6 wide.

The inflorescence is an open spike of 8 to 25 flowers which may be in shades of orange to reddish or purplish.

The flowers sometimes yield capsule fruits which contain seed, but the plant often reproduces via bulbils (strictly speaking, cormlets) that form in clusters in the axils of bracts at nodes along the peduncle.

The bulbils can sprout if dropped into the soil, sometimes forming dense colonies,[3] as can sections of corm that are chopped and dispersed by plowing or by non-intensive feeding by root-eating animals.