Caulescent, 4-6 cm high. Bulbs lanceolate in outline, sharply acute, commonly 4 cm long, often massed together: tunics lanceolate, needle-pointed, loose and separable, the inner brown, the outer blackish, those of the older dead bulbs often imbricating those of the living through the action of the contractile root. Rhizome thickish, up to 12 cm long, with numerous semiamplexicaul scales. Stem 1-4 cm (up to 12 cm long in cult.), often branched, densely hirsute. Leaves terminally clustered at the apex of the stem or branches, with some cauline, alternate: petioles 0.5-1 cm long, hirsute: leaflets 3, sessile, the medial cuneate, rounded at the apex, rarely slightly emarginate, up to 2.5 cm long,1 cm broad, the lateral obliquely oblong, about half as large, adpresso-pubescent on both sides, softly ciliate, minutely nigro-punctate. Peduncles1-fld., terminal, filiform, scarcely 1 cm long, pubescent, with 2 slender opposite clavate callus-tipped bracts, about 2-5 mm long, at an articulation close to the calyx. Sepals oblong-lanceolate, 3.5-5 mm long, pubescent, ecallose, often unequal. Corolla 1.3-1.5 cm long, pubescent, white, with a short widely funnel-shaped tube: petals obliquely cuneate, scarcely attenuate below, obliquely truncate at the apex, about 4 mm broad. Filaments, the shorter 1.7-2.5 mm, the longer 3-4.5 mm long, minutely glandular-pilose, edentate. Ovary pubescent On the upper half, with 5 red calli near the apex, the chambers 2-ovuled: styles pubescent below, minutely glandular-pilose above. Seeds endospermous.
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Caulescent geophyte, 40-60 mm tall. Bulb tunics needle-pointed, loose, brown to blackish. Leaves in clusters at apex and with some along stem, leaflets 3, rounded, rarely notched at apex, pubescent, minutely black-dotted. Flowers 1 per peduncle with opposite bracts close to calyx, small, plain white, petals sparsely hairy beneath.
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