These are tall, erect-growing plants up to three feet in height. The flowers are globe-shaped and large, to five inches across. Red flower colors do not appear in this group, but there now are white-flowered cultivars. The Africans take longer to reach flowering stage than the French type. Cultivars in this group grow 5 inches to 18 inches high.
Flower colors are red, orange and yellow.
Many cultivars combine red and orange in different bicolor patterns. Flowers are smaller than those in the African group. This group probably is not as far removed from their wild ancestors as the much hybridized African and French types. Plants form compact, low mounds less than 12 inches high. Two species offered in the trade are described below.