Plants 120-250 mm high, hairless throughout, with depressed globose corm up to 15 mm diam. Stem simple or few-branched, sometimes ± dichotomously with branches widely diverging, sheathed by smooth cataphylls, old dry leaves coiled around stem base. Leaves narrowly linear-sword-shaped, reaching or shortly exceeding spike, 2.5-4.0 mm wide, scarcely plicate, smooth, slightly twisted, veins thickened, prominent when dry. Spike inclined to ± horizontal, (4-)7-to 12-flowered; bracts subequal, smooth, dry and rust-coloured in upper 1/3, 5-8 mm long, inner ± as long or slightly longer than outer, forked apically or in upper 1/3. Flowers pale blue-mauve to violet, limbs of lower lateral tepals pale yellow or with mauve tips, with light acrid-metallic scent; perianth tube 7-9 mm long, funnel-shaped; tepals unequal, dorsal 18-23 x 4-5 mm, erect, later curving back in distal 1/3, lower lateral tepals joined to upper laterals for ± 5 mm and to one another for ± 3 mm, abruptly clawed at base, claws ± 2 mm long, limbs with conspicuous auriculate lobes at bases, margins lightly crisped. Stamens unilateral; filaments ± 15 mm long; anthers ± 4 mm long, purple; pollen cream-coloured. Ovary smooth; style dividing between base and middle of anthers, branches tangled in anthers. Capsules depressed-globose, ± 6 x 7-8 mm.
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Cormous geophyte, 120-250 mm tall, stem simple or dichotomously branched. Leaves narrowly sword-shaped, scarcely plicate, smooth, with much thickened veins. Flowers mostly 7-12 in a secund, nearly horizontal spike, bilabiate, blue-mauve with yellow nectar guides, perianth tube 7-8 mm long, dorsal tepal 18-23 mm long, ovary smooth, bracts smooth, inner forked in upper third.
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