Plants with bulbs up to 10 cm in diam., often with a considerable neck, often propagating vegetatively to form clusters. Leaves not glaucous, spreading to erect, narrowly lanceolate, mostly with intact apices, 30 x 2.5–5 cm, with distinct midrib. Scape 20–50 cm long, produced with the leaves; bracts persistent, greenish tinged red. Flowers 3–6, dark greenish red in bud; perianth tube greenish red, curved, 8–10 cm long; perianth segments 8–10 cm long and about 2 cm wide, forming a bell, white with a broad sharply bordered dark red band, visible on both sides, broadly lanceolate, tips reflexed during anthesis; filaments white tinged red, shorter than the perianth segments; anthers dark, 8–10 mm long, curved; style tinged red distally. Fruits greenish tinged with red, subglobose without or with a very short apical beak, pericarp thick; seeds light green, not particularly smooth, closely stacked and irregularly compressed, 15–45 per fruit.
Crinum ornatum is known from region N2 of the Flora of Somalia and grows throughout tropical Africa in the transition zone between forest and savannah.
Plants of the World Online (POWO): Crinum ornatum. The distribution map shows the countries where the taxon is considered native or introduced but is now growing in the wild.
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF): Crinum ornatum. Records may be of cultivated specimens.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Crinum ornatum. May 2024 - Least concern,
