 "Pancratium maximum" is a perennial glabrous herb up to 20 cm tall arising from a bulb.The bulb is globose, 4–6 cm in diameter, narrowed above into a cylindrical neck, covered with several layers of dark reddish brown papery tunics.Leaves 2–7 cm long, variable in width, linear-elliptic to narrowly elliptic or ovate and abruptly narrowed into a petiole below, 10–30 cm long x 2.3–18 cm across.