Height about 60 cm. Grows from corms to form dense clumps of upright sword-shaped foliage. It has sprays of bright orange flowers, carried in branched spikes. There are many cultivated varieties and this results in a large amount of variation.

Usually found on disturbed ground, roadside verges or waste places as an escape from cultivation or outcast.

Flowers July to September.

Perennial.

Widespread as an escape from cultivation or outcast in Britain, perhaps less so on the eastern side.

Occasional as an escape from cultivation or outcast in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 13 of the 617 tetrads.