Tuber with whitish flesh, oblong, ± branched. Stems 10-15 cm, lower 1/2 usually buried underground, with 2-4 scales, simple or few branched, aerial part with 2-4 leaves. Leaves ternate, long petiolate, base sheathed; leaflets sessile or nearly so, very glaucous, sometimes apparently pruinose, often mottled with gray and dark greenish streaks and blobs, nearly orbicular, 1.5-2.5 cm, fleshy. Raceme corymbose, simple, 2-10-flowered; bracts ovate or obovate, (5-)10-15 mm, apex obtuse. Pedicel 2.5-5 cm, slightly swollen and arcuately recurved in fruit. Sepals nearly orbicular, 1-1.5 mm, dentate. Corolla pale pink to pale amaranth, with pinkish veins, often with bluish tints, more saturated toward apex, but margins of outer petals often almost white, broad in profile, strongly fragrant. Outer petals narrowly crested, apically often 3-lobed; upper petal 17-22 mm; spur 9-10 mm, not or slightly thickened toward apex, obtuse; nectary ca. 1/2 as long as spur; lower petal often shallowly saccate at base; inner petals ca. 8 mm. Stigma broader than long, apex with 4 papillae, lateral geminate papillae sometimes missing. Capsule broadly ovoid, 6-8 × ca. 4 mm, 4-11-seeded; style ca. 3 mm, usually sharply bent at base in fruit. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.
Home