Plants tufted, 10–40 cm. high.. Rhizome short, horizontal, moniliform, covered with fibrous remains of old leaf-bases; roots many, fibrous, slender, bearing tubers at the tips.. Leaves distichous, grass-like, linear, ciliate, rarely minutely pubescent, often with a purplish-pink tinge, up to 30 cm. long, 2–4 mm. wide; margins minutely scabrid to ciliate near the base; cataphylls with purple coloration, shortly ciliate on margins and veins, occasionally glabrous.. Peduncle terete, often purplish, glabrous, seldom minutely pubescent, up to 20 cm. long.. Inflorescence unbranched, with elongated internodes; floral bracts lanceolate, red, aristate, glabrous, up to 10 mm. long, ciliate or glabrous on the margins.. Pedicels articulated below the middle, often pinkish, up to 9 mm. long in fruit, 2-nate at the lower nodes.. Perianth open, star-shaped; tepals 10–13 mm. long, 3–5 mm. wide, (3–)5–7-veined, outer ones pinkish red, inner ones white with the keels pinkish.. Stamens with radial symmetry, shorter than the perianth; filaments terete, 2–3 mm. long, equal to or shorter than the anthers.. Style declinate, exserted; stigma pinkish.. Capsule reddish, shallowly 3-lobed in cross-section, transversely ridged, emarginate, 6–8.5 mm. long.. Seeds irregularly folded, ± 1 mm. in diameter.
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