Bulbinella latifolia plants are up to 1 m high with numerous thickened roots and with a medium-thick fibrous neck up to 150 mm long. There are usually between 5 and 10 leaves, with the largest up to 550 mm long and 65 mm wide. They are bright green, fleshy, shallowly channelled and with smooth margins. Inflorescence is a dense raceme with up to 500 flowers, conical in bud and flower, up to 250 mm long and 40 mm wide, becoming cylindrical in fruit. Flowers are star-shaped, 9-10 mm in diameter, pedicels 20 mm long. Flowers of this subspecies are dark reddish orange with yellow stamens, ovaries and styles. Seeds are silvery to shiny black, membranous, without obvious wings and up to 6.5 mm long and 3.75 mm wide.

There are four subspecies of Bulbinella latifolia:  Subsp. latifolia has leaves with smooth margins and bright yellow flowers, subsp. denticulata has lemon-yellow flowers and minutely toothed leaf margins, subsp. doleritica has bright orange-red flowers, and subsp. toximontana has cream-coloured flowers. B. latifolia is closely related to B. nutans and they are often very difficult to differentiate. They are separated on the grounds of size and inflorescence shape. B. latifolia has bigger, broader and more spreading leaves and narrower, longer inflorescences than B. nutans.