Plants tufted or solitary, 35–150 cm. high.. Rhizome horizontal, moniliform, densely covered with fibrous remains of old leaf-bases; roots fibrous, bearing tubers distally.. Leaves distichous, bases clasping the peduncle, outer ones short and falcate, inner ones gradually longer and more erect, firm, narrowly lanceolate, acute, closely ribbed, densely pubescent or glabrous, scabrid or ciliate on the margins, 18–100 cm. long, 0.5–4 cm. wide.. Peduncle mainly leafless, but with a few bract-like leaves just below the inflorescence, sharply angled or compressed and winged, glabrous, ciliate or pubescent.. Inflorescence unbranched or with 1–2 condensed branches at the base, ± compact, elongated to subglobose, up to 12 cm. long; floral bracts dark brownish, ovate to broadly lanceolate, aristate, ciliate or glabrous on the margins.. Pedicels articulated below the middle, 8–15 mm. long and arcuate in fruit, 2–3-nate at the lower nodes.. Perianth white; tepals 9–11 mm. long, 5–9-veined, outer ones with dark blackish-red tips, scabrid on the margins.. Stamens shorter than the perianth; filaments dilated at the middle, shorter to as long as the anthers, glabrous.. Style declinate, exserted.. Capsule obovoid, shallowly 3-lobed to rounded-deltate in cross-section, transversely ridged, 6–8 mm. long, 5–6 mm. wide.. Seeds irregularly folded, 1–2 mm. in diameter.
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