Plants 70-200 mm high. Corm with outer tunics of fine-textured, reticulate fibres. Stem reaching to ground level or up to 100 mm above ground, erect but strongly inflexed above uppermost leaf sheath, simple or with 1 short branch, glabrous below, becoming velvety near spike; sheathed by smooth cataphylls and leaf sheaths. Leaves 3 or 4, oblong to lanceolate, slightly twisted distally, blade suberect at ± 30º degrees, 40-100(-150) x (5-)10-18 mm, thinly velvety, lightly pleated, midrib and margins slightly thickened, margins hyaline, minutely hairy; seedling leaves linear-lanceolate and coiled, hairy. Spike 3-to 7-flowered, ± horizontal, secund; bracts green with brown tips, outer ovate, 20-30 mm long, margins narrowly hyaline, thinly and minutely velvety, especially distally, truncate or emarginate-apiculate, inner ± as long as outer, forked for 5-8 mm, with broad hyaline margins in lower half. Flowers zygomorphic, pale grey-green or flushed with greyish lilac, lower lateral tepals with yellowish green median blotches and purple streaks, with sweet, spicy scent; perianth tube obliquely funnel-shaped, hollow to base, 18-23 mm long; tepals unequal, narrowly lanceolate, margins crisped, dorsal suberect, recurving distally, 32-38 x 6.5-8.0 mm, upper laterals narrower, joined to lower tepals for 5-7 mm forming lip, lower tepals 25-30 x 4-5 mm. Stamens unilateral; filaments suberect, 12-16 mm long; anthers 7-8 mm long, whitish. Ovary smooth; style dividing opposite middle 1/3 of anthers, branches 4-6 mm long. Capsules subglobose, 8-9 mm long.
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Cormous geophyte, 120-200 mm tall, stem subterranean or reaching up to 100 mm above ground, usually unbranched. Leaves oblong to lanceolate, twisted distally, margins thickened, hyaline. Flowers 4-7 in a short spike, radially symmetric, grey-green with yellow nectar guides streaked with purple, spicy scented, perianth tube 18-23 mm long, tepals unequal, dorsal 32-35 x 6.5-8 mm, ovary smooth, bracts velvety, inner forked apically. Late May-June.
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