Photo courtesy of Dr Tanaka
A small species; green foliage, small, oval shaped, branching habit; triangular stems, coloured green; spikes of flowers are erect, self-coloured scarlet, staminodes are long and narrow, edges regular, petals red with farina, fully self-cleaning; fertile both ways, self-pollinating and also true to type, capsules globose; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured pink and purple; tillering is average.
This is a wild species that has not adapted to a temperate climate and its winters. It is used to growing 52 weeks of the year and if you cannot bring it indoors over a cold winter to continue growing there, then it is pointless trying to treat it like a cultivar and try to make it as dormant as possible, as it will not survive such treatment.
