Perennial bulbous plant of the Asparagaceae family, native to South Africa, mainly from the Cape provinces, where it grows on rocky slopes, open fynbos, and well-drained sandy soils, in full light.
It produces upright stems 20 to 40 cm tall, bearing linear to lanceolate basal leaves, of medium green, often slightly wavy at the edges. The flowers are gathered in a dense and compact cluster, opening gradually from bottom to top, revealing at the top the still closed buds grouped in a well-characteristic head — a silhouette recognizable even from afar.
The flowers are large, star-shaped with well-spread tepals, of a bright orange to bright orange-yellow, with a dark brown-green central ovary and stamens with yellow anthers. This clear orange color is quite unusual in the genus, which mostly includes species with white or yellow flowers, and it is this that has earned the species great success in horticulture.
In its natural environment, flowering occurs in the southern spring. In cultivation under a temperate climate, it blooms from March to May.
Not very hardy, it does not tolerate frost. It is grown in pots under cold shelter in winter, or in open ground in regions with very mild winters, in light, well-drained soil, in a sunny position. The bulbs are lifted after the foliage yellows and kept dry until autumn replanting.