Plants stemless, solitary or forming small groups, with 12-20 spreading to ascending leaves. Leaves 20-40 cm long and 6-8 cm wide, shiny and brownish to dark green in color with numerous whitish spots and, in var marmorata, darker green markings; leaf margins with brown teeth about 4 mm long. Inflorescences 60-85 cm tall and with 5-15 branches that terminate in racemes up to 20cm long bearing flowers on pedicals 8-10 mm long that are subtended by bracts 6-8 mm long and 3-4 mm wide. Flowers pendulous, with pinkish scarlet to bright red perianths 26-30 mm long and 9 mm wide across the ovary. The anthers are exceed the perianth by 1-2 mm, the stigm by 2-3 mm.
There are two varieties:
A. somaliensis var. somaliensis has spreading, brownish green leaves no more than 25 cm long and only white markings and pinkish flowers that are 28-30 mm long. It grows at 700-1000 m elevation in western Somaliland (region N1) and Djibouti.
A. somaliensis var. marmorata has ascending, dark green leaves with both whitish and darker green markings and bright red flowers that are about 26 mm long. It grows at about 800 m elevation and is known only from western Somaliland (region N1).
