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Leaves 3–10, grass-like; the outer broadly sheathed at the base and narrowing into a linear blade, erect at first, the outermost sheaths ± abruptly narrowed at the apex with reduced blades, ± densely golden-brown hispid-tomentose, soon glabrescent, ± broadly membranous on the margins; the inner 5–45 cm × 1–3.5 mm, linear or sometimes ± terete, strongly ribbed with submarginal veins often thicker than the midrib, finely pilose-pubescent at first, particularly on the margins and midrib abaxially, or glabrous; pseudostem up to c. 5 cm long, 2–5 mm in diameter.
A slender erect herb. It grows 40 cm high. It has an underground stem or rhizome. It keeps growing from year to year. The rhizome is almost round and 2-3 cm long by 1-2 cm wide. There are 3-10 leaves. They are grass-like and narrow. They have a brown covering but this falls off. The flowers often appear before the leaves. There are 1-5 flowers and they are up to 1 cm long. The fruit is a capsule 2-3 mm long and wide. There are 8-12 seeds.
Perennial geophyte, 50-150 mm high; slender, wiry, lightly hairy; rhizome with fibrous sheaths. Leaves 4-7, erect, rigid, subterete, 80-200 x 2-3 mm, U-shaped in cross section, strongly ribbed, sparsely covered in long, weak hairs. Flowers 2, one slightly above the other, yellow; tepals 4.5-5.0 x 1.5-2.0 mm; apex of anther split; ovary 2.0-2.5 mm long; style shorter to ± equalling stigma. Flowering time (Mar.-)Sept.-Feb.(-May.
Flowers usually appearing before the leaves, 1–5, ± spicately to racemosely arranged; pedicels ascending, the lower ones 0–3(9) mm long, the upper to 16 mm long; bracts 3–9 mm long, linear-subulate.
Geophyte, up to 300 mm tall. Leaves filiform, ± 2 mm broad. Inflorescence 1-or 2-flowered. Perianth limb 6-12 mm long. Corm 6-8 mm in diameter. Flowers yellow.
Scapes 1–3, up to c. 24 cm long excluding the inflorescence, filiform, ± flattened becoming slightly U-shaped in cross-section when dry, appressed-pilose.
Perianth 8–14 mm in diameter when open; tepals up to 10 × 3 mm, narrowly elliptic, appressed-pilose-pubescent to somewhat tomentose abaxially.
Rhizome vertical, 1.5–3 × 0.5–1 cm and ± cylindrical or up to 2 × 1.5–3 cm and subglobose, equatorially ringed by stout contractile roots.
Seeds black and glossy, 0.6–1 mm in diameter, globose; testa papillose, the papillae dome-shaped with a smooth shiny cuticle.
Capsule 2–3 × 3 mm, excluding the persistent perianth, turbinate, 8-or 12-seeded.
Indumentum hairs 2-armed; the arms fine, mostly appressed, ± unequal.
A slender erect, often ± strict perennial herb up to 40 cm tall.
Filaments 1.3–1.6 mm long; thecae 1.2–2 mm long.
Style 0.2–0.3 mm long; stigma 1–1.6 mm long.
