Plant flowering from ca. 13 cm, up to 40 cm long, with a 8-25 cm tall funnelform-or subtubular-rosette of a few to about 10 lustrous-green leaves. Leaves thin, with large but indistinct sheaths, ovate-or linear-lanceolate, 15-25 x 3-4.5 cm, often much exceeded by the scape, broadly rounded and apiculate, sparsely or subdensely punctulate-lepidote throughout, grass-green, often not at all cretaceous, the outer ones mostly strongly reduced, sheath-like and acutish. Inflorescence simple or laxly bipinnate of 2-6 polystichously arranged spikes, glabrous; scape mostly erect or slightly curved, 16-25 cm long, ca. 2 mm in diam., partly exposed; scape bracts erect, remote, sometimes loosely sheathing, chartaceous, (broadly) ovate, rounded and apiculate, about half as long as the internodes or less; axis elongate, straight or nearly so, subterete; primary bracts as the upper scape bracts, suberect or spreading with the spikes, much exceeded by the peduncle of the spikes; peduncle 1.8-2 cm long, angled, naked; spikes elongate, 2-8 cm long, 0.9-1.3 cm in diam. at anthesis, laxly and polystichously 3-18-flowered, with a few densely imbricate reduced sterile bracts at the apex; rachis exposed, straight or curved, angled; floral bracts clasping the flowers, thin, with veined surface when dry, broadly ovate 0.5-0.7 cm long, about as long as the internodes, much exceeded by the sepals, broadly acute or obtuse, ecarinate, only minutely brown-lepidote inside. Flowers suberect or spreading, remote, sessile; sepals thin, with veined surface when dry, asymmetrically obovate, 0.6-0.8 cm long, apically with an extended membranaceous margin at one side, emarginate and obscurely apiculate, free, ecarinate, only minutely brown-lepidote inside; petals elliptic with minute whitish blade, obtuse, slightly (if at all) exceeding the sepals, white; stamens deeply included, the longest three just exceeding the pistil, the other ones shorter, filaments straight, flat, dilated above the ovary and subterete, anthers basifixed, sagittate, less than 1 mm long, obtuse; ovary ellipsoid, 2.5-3.5 mm long, style very short (1 mm), stigmas hook-shaped. Capsule ovoid, ca. 1.2 cm long, rounded and short-beaked, coma gold-brown.
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Plant 1-3 dm. high. Leaves 4-13 in a tubular rosette, 8-20 cm. long, obscure-ly lepidote; sheaths inconspicuous, about as long as the blades but scarcely wider; blades curving outward, ligulate, rounded and apiculate, 12-25 mm. wide, flat, nar-rowly scarious-margined. Scape erect, slender, glabrous. Scape-bracts erect, much shorter than the internodes, broad-ly elliptic, apiculate. Inflorescence simple or compound from a few spikes, lax, to 11 cm. long, glabrous. Primary bracts like the scape-bracts, 7-8 mm. long, much shorter than the naked sterile base of. the spikes. Spikes divergent, 2-9 cm. long, laxly flowered. Floral bracts broad-ly ovate, obtuse, much exceeded by the sepals, thin, nerved. Flowers suberect, perfect. Sepals asymmetric, suborbicular, 7-8 mm. long, subchartaceous, nerved, wrinkled when dry. Petals lance-ovate, barely exserted, white. Stamens unequal. Ovary ovoid. Style very short. Capsule ovoid, distinctly short-beaked, 12 mm. long.
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