Rhizomes greenish with brown leaf scars, branching from older buds quite some distance proximal to apex, forming widely scattered colonies, 2–2.5 cm diam. Stems 1–2-branched, solid, 3–9 dm. Leaves: basal stiffly erect, blade yellow-green, lightly ribbed, 8–9 dm × 2–3 cm; cauline 1–2, foliaceous, blade 1.2–2 dm, exceeding subtended flower. Inflorescence units 1–2-flowered, branch units 1-flowered; spathes lanceolate, subequal or unequal, apex acute; outer foliaceous, 15–20 cm, usually exceeding flower; inner 8–10 cm, herbaceous, with scarious margins. Flowers: perianth blue to violet, rarely white; floral tube funnelform, grooved in line with grooves of ovary, 2–3 cm; sepals spreading horizontally, obovate to oval, 8–8.5 × 4 cm, claw greenish with prominent yellow midrib which is pubescent on each side at base, apex rounded; petals erect or spreading-erect, oblanceolate to spatulate, 7–9 × 2 cm, claw veined with green; ovary roundly triangular in cross section, with wide grooves at angles and concave sides, 2–3 cm; style convex laterally from central reddish ridge, 3.5–5 cm, narrower than claw of sepals, crests erect, overlapping, semiovate to triangular, 1–5 cm, margins coarsely toothed; stigmas 2-lobed, lobes triangular or rounded-deltoid, margins entire; pedicel 2.5–3.5 cm. Capsules hexagonal in cross section, with 3 alternate sides plane, others with 2 rounded ridges with shallow groove between them, 2.5–3.5 × 2–2.5 cm. Seeds in 2 rows per locule, light brown, D-shaped or irregularly rounded, 4–6 mm, corky. 2n = 44.
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