Rhizomatous herb, stemless or short-stemmed to 1 m tall. Leaves in rossete, fleshy, elliptic to ovate, 17-65 cm long. Inflorescence to c. 0.7 m long; flowers clustered at end of stalk, subtended by 4 leafy inflorescence bracts and filiform or whisker-like bracts, white to grey to dark purplish black in colour. Fruits when ripening, pushed to the ground fleshy, truncated ellipisoid, ribbed, c. 5 cm long with numerous seeds.