Crocosmia aurea, commonly known as falling stars or in Afrikaans valentynblom (Valentine flower), is a perennial geophyte growing from a corm to between 40 cm and 130 cm in height. The soft leaves are linear to lanceolate and up to 3 cm wide, growing in a basal fan.

The nodding orange flowers grow in a two-ranked spike. Each salver-shaped flower has a curved tube up to 2 cm long, opening to radially symmetrical tepal tips. Narrowly oblong, dark yellow anthers hang from the long white filaments. The style with three yellow stigma branches can be observed among the stamens in the photo.

Flowering starts late summer, well into autumn. The ripe fruit is a leathery orange capsule containing spherical black seeds.

The plant grows on forest margins in the eastern parts of the country, as far south-west as George in the southern Cape and northwards to tropical Africa (Manning, 2009; iSpot).