Perennial or monocarpic; stems trunk-like, 20- c. 70 cm high, 1-2-(5) cm diam., not branched or with few to many lateral branches towards base, with numerous narrow, brown, elongated lf scars. Rosettes terminal, usually 7-20 cm diam. on main shoots, smaller on lateral branches, flattened except in summer. Outer rosette lvs to 8-(11) × 3-(4) cm, 2-3 mm thick, oblanceolate to obovate or obovate-spathulate, green or occasionally purple, glabrous and ± flat on both surfaces; margins ciliate or ciliolate, mostly green, sometimes red towards the mucronate apex. Flowering shoots terminal, either the whole plant or the stem bearing the infl. dying after flowering; axis stout, tall and erect, usually finely covered with very short glandular hairs, very rarely glabrate, with leaflike bracts usually deciduous by peak flowering. Infl. a broadly ovoid-pyramidal panicle, rounded at the top, usually 10-18 × 6-13 cm; fls densely arranged, not obviously secund on branches. Calyx lobes 1.5-3 mm long, puberulent with very short glandular hairs, lanceolate, narrow- to broad-triangular. Petals (7)-8-11, 6-9 × 1.5-2.5 mm, linear or linear-oblong to ± lanceolate-ovate, usually golden, rarely medium yellow. Stamens ± golden, the inner whorl 5-8.5 mm long, the outer whorl usually slightly shorter. Carpels greenish yellow. Scales (0.5)-0.8-1.2 mm long, ± square to rectangular or cuneate, truncate, erose or emarginate at apex. Seeds c. 0.5 mm long, narrowly ellipsoid, longitudinally ridged.