Herb to 75 cm tall; rhizome with a bulb at the top. Leaves forming a pseudostem to about 50 cm long; leaf blades narrowly ovate to ovate, roundish when young and wavy edged.. Flower clusters usually produced before the leaves; cluster stalk mostly about 30 cm long, spotted with purple; umbel more or less conical, dense and surrounded by persistent, usually dark red, involucral bracts; spring. [Haemanthus natalensis Hook.]
Eastern and southern Africa.
Apparently differs technically from S. multiflorus only in the persistent involucral bracts, though these make it quite strikingly different in appearance.
Source: (2005). Narcissus. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
