Corm short, ovoid-subglobose, 0.5-2.5(-3) cm long and wide, simple or with 1-2 usually horizontal (or sometimes ± vertical) subterete obtuse or apically rounded lobes up to 4 cm long and 3-6 mm thick, with light brown or yellowish tunics. Cataphyll a whitish-brownish sheath, terminated by a short ovate or oblong, acute or mucronate tip, sometimes withered or worn away at the time of anthesis. Stem above-ground part 4-20 cm high, slender, simple or bifurcate, rarely more highly-branched; subterranean portion thin, sometimes almost filiform, rarely stout, but always narrowed above the corm. Leaves 2-4, erecto-patent to spreading or somewhat recurved, linear to linear-lanceolate, acuminate or tapering to a semi-mucronate apex, 5-20 cm long, 0.5-2 cm wide near the base, often slightly conduplicate, glaucous or greyish-green; leaf-margins flat or rarely faintly undulate. Raceme usually short and few-flowered, rarely up to 12(-18)-flowered. Bracts almost as long as the pedicels or shorter, linear-lanceolate, acuminate-cuspidate, the lowermost one(s) 3-5 cm long and 0.5-1 cm wide, sometimes broader than the leaves. Pedicels erecto-patent to recurved, abruptly recurved near the apex, eventually sometimes reflexed, 1-4.5 cm long. Perianth 1-2.5 cm in diam. Tepals 6-10(-14) mm long; claw 0.5-1.5 mm long, flattened, whitish or at least light-coloured; blade lanceolate, 5.5-9(-12.5) mm long, 1.2-2.5 mm wide near the base, apically subacute, uniformly brownish-purple, or purplish-black apically with a dull-purplish spot above the claw and otherwise greenish, or adaxially green with maroon-purple margins and tip, indistinctly veined with 5-8 strong or faint veins, margins becoming inflexed. Nectary margin straight or shallowly concave. Filaments 2-5 mm long, 0.4-1 mm thick, thickest below the middle, arcuately curved, uniformly white or upper part light-greenish or purplish, often with a distinct vein (in dried material). Anthers oblong, 1-2 mm long, yellow or light brown to brownish purple or almost black. Styles 3.5-6 mm long, ± spreading, straight or flexuous, greenish-whitish, with a small capitate stigma. Ovary oblong or subglobose, shallowly 3-lobed transversely, greenish. Capsule oblong-ellipsoid, 1.5-2.5(-3) cm long, 0.7-1.5 cm broad. Seeds globose or somewhat oblong, 1.5-3.5 mm in diam., somewhat rugose and tartareous, light to dark brown, slightly glossy; surface minutely colliculate-areolate ('micro-colliculate' or 'micro-foveate-colliculate' at high magnification); chalaza and raphe forming a keel, or ridge, or wing, along half the circumference, up to 0.5 mm high, chalaza sometimes projecting even more.
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