Aristea lugens Hort. ex Steud.

Plants 300-500 mm high, in loose colonies. Stem flattened and winged below, slightly angled above, unbranched, sometimes with 1(2) sessile lateral flower clusters. Leaves mostly ± half as long as stem, falcate, 3-6 mm wide, soft-textured. Flower clusters 2-or 3-flowered; spathes green with translucent margins, 23-26 mm long, bracts dry-membranous, shorter than the spathes. Flowers on pedicels 12-18 mm long, inner tepals pale blue to whitish, outer tepals ± erect in upper half, dark blue-black or brownish; outer tepals 16-20(-25) x 10-15 mm, inner spreading, 28-45 x 28-32 mm. Filaments 5-7 mm long; anthers 6-9 mm long. Ovary elongate-trigonous, 15-22 mm long; style 12-15 mm long, stigma lobes spreading, deeply fringed. Capsules on pedicels up to 20 mm long, woody, indehiscent, cylindric, deeply 3-lobed, 38-45(-65) mm long. Seeds triangular-columnar, many per locule in a single vertical row.