Rhizomatous geophyte up to 130cm. Leaves terete, longer than flowering stems and trailing. Flowers bright yellow, enclosed by green spathes, arranged in a dense head of 20-40 flowers.

Flowers more prolifically after fire.

Very similar to Bobartia longicyma; the leaves of B. longicyma are usually shorter than the flowering stems.

After: Jacob Bobart (1599-1680), German botanist and Head Gardener of the Oxford Physic Garden, which was the first such garden in England.