Plants 2.5-14(-20) cm tall. Corm ovoid, 6-15 mm diam., covered with dark brown fibrous tunics; fibres hard, linear proximally, reticulate in distal half, firmly attached to flat or convex basal disc, tips acute, erect to slightly spreading; roots slender, arising near corm base between fibres, contractile roots often developing proximally. Cataphylls membranous, up to 25 mm long, apex oblique. Leaves 3-6 at flowering, sheathing at base up to 20 mm long, suberect to slightly arched, linear to narrowly lorate, 40-170 x 1.5-6.0(-13) mm, firm, pale to dark green, narrowing to a flattened, thin-textured base, epidermis somewhat papillate, margin often raised, frequently with widely spaced, irregularly-shaped, multicellular teeth towards base; apex subacute, often developing a dark, thickened, U-shaped scar when cut or broken. Inflorescences 1 or rarely 2 in flower at a time, (1)2-flowered, longer than leaves; scape (5-)10-33(-70) x ca. 1.5 mm, compressed adaxially, green to pale reddish; bracts 2, clasping pedicels for up to ca. 3/4 of length, lanceolate, canaliculate, 24-33 x 1.5-3.0 mm, firm to leathery, green, margin somewhat membranous, apex slightly carinate, spreading, sometimes bearing a few, erect trichomes. Flowers pedicellate, stellate, yellow, backed with pale green or pale red on outer tepals, unscented; pedicels slightly spreading, deflexed sideways when fruiting, 20-90 x 0.8-1.3 mm, green to reddish; tepals 6, lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 6-17 mm long, outer 2.5-5.0 mm wide, mucronate, inner 1.5-3.5 mm wide. Stamens 6, suberect to slightly spreading, equal or rarely outer shorter than inner, yellow; filaments inserted on ovary rim, outer 0.5-2.5 mm long, inner 1.0-3.5 mm long, both whorls shorter or rarely slightly longer than anthers; anthers oblong, outer 2-5 mm long, inner 3.5-6.0 mm long, latrorse, basal lobes ca. 0.5 mm long; pollen yellow. Ovary narrowly obconical, 3.5-6.0 x 2.0-3.0 mm, 3-locular, green to red; style 1.0-2.5 mm long; stigma branches suberect, oblong, 2.0-4.5 x 0.5 mm, shorter than or rarely equalling stamens, yellow, densely papillose. Capsules narrowly obconical, 5-10 x 2.0-2.5 mm, somewhat curved, dehiscence circumscisile and then lengthwise close to septa, placental ridges remaining attached in a central column. Seeds ellipsoid, ca. 0.5 mm diam., rusty brown, colliculate, epidermal cells arranged in ca. 25 close-set, longitudinal rows, anticlinal cell walls mostly isodiametric, outer periclinal cell walls almost entirely hemispherical. Flowering period: (June-)July-October(-January).
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