Plants robust, 70-500 mm tall; sterile shoots up to 70 mm long, basal sheaths 2-3, leaves usually 2, narrowly elliptic, acute, conduplicate; fertile shoots: cauline leaves imbricate, lower 2-3 reduced to sheaths, remainder with free blades, grading into the floral bracts. Inflorescences dense, 30-150-flowered; bracts narrowly ovate, 10-15 mm long, apices frequently reflexed. Flowers c. 8 mm in diameter, white to pale lilac, usually mottled darker; strongly scented. Median sepal erect, oblong to elliptic-oblong, galea 4.5-7 x 2.5-4 x 1-2 mm deep; spur pendent at c. 45°, reaching below base of median sepal, slender or apically clavate, 4-10 mm long; lateral sepals spreading, oblong, navicular, apices curved forwards, 5-6.5 x 2-2.5 mm. Petals erect, entire, lanceolate to oblanceolate, tips curved over the anther, 3.5-6.5 x 1-1.8 mm. Lip semi-pendent, narrowly oblanceolate, 3-6 x 0.4-1 mm. Stigma 0.5-1 mm tall.
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Herb, up to 0.5 m high, with separate sterile shoots. Leaves narrowly elliptic, acute, conduplicate, cauline leaves imbricate, usually with purple bars around sheaths. Flowers: spur slender, obtuse or rarely subclavate, 5-10 mm long; anther erect; petals oblanceolate, obtuse; perianth white to pale lilac or carmine, usually mottled; Mar., Apr.
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