Small, bushy, much-branched shrub to c. 60 cm high, often forming a dense spreading clump; stems to c. 1.5 cm diam.; lf scars indistinct. Rosettes terminal, mostly 5-11-(14) cm diam., rather flattened. Outer rosette lvs to c. 7-(9) × 3-(3.5) cm, (3)-5-7 mm thick, obovate to broadly obovate- spathulate, usually glaucous, occasionally ± glaucescent (especially if shaded), glabrous on both surfaces, ± concave above and slightly keeled and convex on lower surface; margins ciliolate, red at least towards the mucronate apex. Flowering shoots terminal but vegetative growth often continued from lateral branches beneath; axis moderately stout, spreading, red, glabrous, with leaflike bracts numerous and somewhat decreasing towards infl. Infl. a broadly pyramidal panicle, rounded at the top, usually 10-24 cm long and nearly as wide; fls ± densely secund along branches. Calyx lobes 3-6 mm long, glabrous, narrowly triangular, triangular or triangular-ovate. Petals (6)-8-10, 8-12 × 2-4 mm, linear-elliptic, lanceolate-elliptic, or ± elliptic, whitish or cream, often with a pink flush and a green keel outside, sometimes pale yellow. Stamens white or pink, the inner whorl 5.5-9.5 mm long, the outer whorl usually slightly shorter or sometimes slightly longer. Carpels white or pinkish. Scales 0.5-1 mm long, square or ± rectangular, often emarginate. Seeds 0.6-0.7 mm long, obovoid-oblong, minutely longitudinally streaked.