Plants 5-19 cm tall. Corm ovoid, 10-13 mm diam., covered with mostly fine, brown, fibrous tunics; fibres densely reticulate, fused to basal disc, not extended into a neck; roots spreading from near corm base. Cataphylls persisting as a papery or leathery, brown, slender neck up to 20 mm long. Leaves 3-7, sheathing up to 30 mm from base, suberect to spreading, linear, 20-190 x 1.0-1.5(-3.0) mm, shallowly carinate, pale green; epidermis large-celled, margin entire; apex turning black when cut. Inflorescences 1 or 2 in flower at a time, 2-flowered, rarely 1 remaining rudimentary, shorter than or as long as leaves; scape 20-90 x ca. 1 mm, somewhat compressed laterally, greenish red; bracts 2, clasping pedicels at base, narrowly lanceolate, 10-16 x 2-3 mm, thin-textured, greenish red, with narrow, translucent edges, occasionally 1 bract shorter and much narrower. Flowers pedicellate, stellate, yellow, backed with pale green, midrib occasionally reddish brown, unscented; pedicels suberect, terete, 56-80 x 1 mm, remaining suberect when fruiting, reddish green; tepals 6, lanceolate to narrowly elliptical, 5.5-8.5 mm long, outer 2-4 mm wide, mucronate, inner 1.5-2.0 mm wide. Stamens 6, unequal, outer nearly half as long as inner, suberect to slightly spreading, yellow; filaments inserted on ovary rim, outer 1-2 mm long, slightly shorter than anthers, inner 1.5-3.5 mm long, as long as or longer than anthers; anthers somewhat oblong, latrorse, 1.2-2.5 mm long, basal lobes up to 0.2 mm long, apex shallowly notched; pollen yellow. Ovary obconical, 2-4 x 1.7-2.0 mm, 3-locular; style 1.0-1.2 mm long; stigma branches suberect, oblong, often unequal, 1.7-4.0 x 0.5-1.0 mm, slightly shorter than stamens, yellow, densely papillose. Capsules obconical, ca. 4.5 x 3.5 mm, dehiscence circumscissile. Seeds ovoid, ca. 0.5 x 0.4 mm, dark brown to matt black, epidermal cells densely colliculate, in ca. 35 longitudinal rows, anticlinal walls isodiametric, outer periclinal walls almost entirely convex and finely pitted. Flowering period: (June-)August-October(-November).
Home