Plants 200-750 mm high. Corm 15-20 mm diam.; tunics of coarse, wiry black fibres. Stem with long basal internode, much-branched from upper nodes, branches short, flexed below rhipidia, with attenuate sheathing leaves 30-60 mm long. Foliage leaf solitary, basal, sheathing lower 1/2 of stem, falcate distally, channelled but often flat distally, glaucous, 15-20 mm wide. Rhipidial spathes attenuate, inner 30-40 mm long, outer ± 2/3 as long. Flowers fugaceous, pale yellow or pink, all tepal limbs with deep yellow nectar guides at bases usually spotted with green, spreading, claws erect, appressed to base of filament column; outer tepals oblong to narrowly obovate, 16-20 x 9-14 mm, claws narrow, ± 2 mm long, smooth, inner tepals slightly smaller, narrowly elliptic. Filaments united in a column 6-8 mm long, usually abruptly swollen above base, tapering in upper 2/3 to narrow apex, smooth or velvety except at base and near apex; anthers initially 2.5-4.0 mm long, collapsing to 1.5-2.0 mm after dehiscence, erect, contiguous. Ovary ellipsoid, 7-9 mm long, usually included; style branches ± 1 mm long, deeply forked, apices stigmatic, emerging between anthers, crests lacking. Capsules ellipsoid, 10-12 mm long.
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Cormous geophyte, up to 500 mm tall. Leaf 1, broad below, clasping lower half of stem. Flowers enclosed in green spathes, yellow or pink, speckled in the centre, tepals with short, clasping claws, limbs spreading, filament column bulbous below, style branches concealed by the anthers.
Like M. miniata but leaf solitary, fairly broad below and clasping lower half of stem.
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