Plants 50-100 cm; corms globose, 15-25 mm diam. Stems usually 2-4-branched, often curving distally. Leaves 5-8, mostly basal, basal much larger than cauline; blade lanceolate, 8-20 mm wide. Spikes: spathes 6-10 mm, apex brown, dry, outer apex acute, inner apex 2-keeled, bifurcate; flowers distichous. Tepals spreading, dorsal weakly arcuate, paler in center, sometimes with darker markings at base, subequal, outer whorl slightly larger than inner, 16-25 × 6-9 mm; perianth tube 12-15 mm; filaments 15-22 mm; anthers 6-8 mm; ovary oblong, ca. 3 mm; style arching over stamens, branching at or shortly beyond anther apices; branches ca. 4 mm, apically bifid. Capsules ca. 8 mm. Seeds blackish, ca. 2.5 mm diam. (or aborted and plants partly or completely sterile). 2n = 22.

Flowering mainly Jul--Aug. Roadsides, thickets, forest margins; 50 m; introduced; B.C.; Calif., Fla., N.C., Oreg., S.C., Tex., Wash.; South Africa.

Crocosmia × crocosmiiflora is an escape from cultivation.