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Perennial herb, geophyte, 0.15-0.45 high; corm tunics of dark brown to black fibres; stem erect or inclined, flexuously branched. Leaf 1, sometimes inconspicuous, inserted just below inflorescence. Spathes herbaceous, lacerated, apex and margins dry. Inflorescence with lilac to blue-violet flowers; nectar guides yellow, ringed with dark mauve; tepals reflexed, outer 14-20 mm long, claw ascending, inner up to 15 mm long, linear-lanceolate. Stamens: filaments 4-5 mm long, united in lower 2-3 mm; anthers 4-5 mm long; pollen yellow. Ovary ± 4 mm long; style branches up to 11 mm long, including crests. Flowering time Oct.-Feb. Capsule ± obovoid.
Foliage leaf solitary, inserted on the upper third of the stem, 5–20 cm long, shorter than or more often shortly exceeding the stem at anthesis, narrowly channelled, sometimes terete above; sheathing leaves seldom exceeding 2.5 cm in length, green at least below, dry and brown above.
Flowers grey-blue to violet with yellow nectar guides edged with dark-violet on the outer tepals; outer tepals 14–20 mm long, limb 7–14 × 6–10 mm, spreading c. 45° below the horizontal; inner tepals 9–15 mm long, narrowly lanceolate, the limb 4–6 mm wide, also spreading.
Cormous herb, up to 450 mm tall. Stem erect or inclined, lowermost internode very long with leaf at first node, internodes above leaf shorter. Flowers lilac to blue-violet with yellow nectar guides ringed with dark mauve on outer tepals.
Rhipidia (1)3-several, crowded apically; spathes green, becoming dry above, apices attenuate, the inner 2.5–3.5 cm long, the outer c. 1 cm shorter than the inner, sometimes apically lacerate.
Stem erect or inclined, usually with crowded branches, the lowermost internode very long, the internodes above the foliage leaf short.
Ovary c. 4 mm long, exserted; style branches 10–12 mm long including crests.
Corms 10–15 mm in diameter; tunics of dark-brown to blackish fibres.
Filaments 4–5 mm long, free in the upper half, anthers 4–5 mm long.
Cataphylls membranous, usually unbroken.
Capsule 4.5–10 × 4–5 mm broadly ovoid.
Plants 15–45 cm high.
