Plants 0.7-1.1 m high. Corm globose, 15-25 mm diam.; tunics of coarse, red-brown fibres. Stem slightly flexuose, sticky below nodes for half an internode, bearing entirely sheathing leaves 40-65 mm long, green below, dry and brown above, tips dry, attenuate, with 1 or 2 lateral branches at upper 3 or 4 nodes, branches parallel to stem below, flexed outward above sheathing leaf. Foliage leaves usually 4 to 6 in 2 ranks, lower 3 to 5 basal, channelled, arching outward, mostly 5-8 mm wide, uppermost cauline, shorter than basal. Rhipidial spathes dull green, becoming ± purplish with age, margins dry and membranous, with dry, brown attenuate tips, inner 40-50 mm long, outer ± half as long. Flowers fugaceous, white fading bluish or to pale slate-blue, outer tepal limbs with yellow nectar guide streaked with darker veins at bases, either slightly lemon-scented or a sweet clove scent, tepal claws arching upward and forming a cup enclosing filaments and anther bases; outer tepals 40-45 x 15-20 mm, claws arcuate, erect above, 10-12(-16) mm long, with large basal nectary, limbs lanceolate, often ± attenuate, spreading horizontally or dipping up to 45º below horizontal; inner tepals 36-42 x 8-15 mm. Filaments 7-10 or ± 12 mm long, free but parallel and connivent below, forming a slender column, diverging in upper 1.5 mm; anthers 6-8 mm long, ovate, white; pollen white. Ovary exserted, narrowly club-shaped, ± 10 mm long; style branches 7-10 x 8-9 mm, ascending, stigma bilobed with sterile acute appendage between lobes, crests ± linear, erect, 15-20 mm long. Capsules narrowly ovoid to oblong, 18-25 mm long. Seeds angular, angles ± ridged to winged, ± 4-5 x 3 mm, dark brown.
More
Cormous geophyte, mostly 0.5-1.2 m tall, stems sticky, branched. Leaves 4-6, linear, channelled, trailing above. Flowers enclosed in fibrous, acute spathes, white to pale slate blue, fragrant, opening in the late afternoon, outer tepals larger, limbs laxly spreading, filaments free, contiguous, style branches narrow, diverging crests erect.
Home