Plants (3.5-)7-30 cm tall, sometimes clumped. Corm somewhat ovoid to globose, 8-19 mm diam., covered with pale brown fibrous tunics, rarely just distally, inner tunics often encrusted with white crystals, cormlets occasionally developing near base; fibres finely reticulate, detaching from basal disc, sometimes extended into a neck up to 13 mm long; roots spreading from near corm base or occasionally tangled around corm, epidermis often felt-like. Cataphylls membranous, up to 30 mm long. Leaves 3-9(-16), sheathing at base up to 70 mm, suberect to spreading, linear, sometimes sinuate, 60-220 x (0.5-)1-3(-4) mm, tapering evenly upwards, deeply to shallowly canaliculate, sometimes wiry, shiny to dark green, margin with widely spaced, minute, often recurved, multicellular teeth, sometimes hyaline proximally, occasionally entire. Inflorescences 2-5 in flower at a time, up to 15 when fruiting, 1-flowered, shorter or longer than leaves; scape 10-60(-80) x 0.7-1.0 mm, subterete, pale green; bracts 2, filiform, hardly clasping pedicel, 1.8-5.0(15.0) x 0.2 mm, pale greenish or colourless. Flower pedicellate, stellate, bright yellow, rarely orange, backed with green and outlined with red in outer whorl, sometimes with pale yellow or white between broad green central stripe and reddish rim, often narrowly striped with green in inner whorl, unscented; pedicel suberect, spreading in fruit, 40-120 x 0.6-1.0 mm, ca. terete, pale green to reddish brown; tepals 6, oblong-lanceolate, 7-16 mm long, outer 2.5-4.5 mm wide, minutely mucronate, inner 2.0-3.5 mm wide. Stamens 6, suberect to spreading, straight to curved inwards, ca. equal, yellow; filaments inserted on ovary rim, (1.0-)2.0-3.0 mm long, shorter than anthers; anthers linear-oblong, latrorse, 4-10 x 0.7-1.0 mm, basal lobes up to ca. 0.2 mm; pollen yellow. Ovary subcylindrical to narrowly obconical, 4.0-12.0 x 1.2-2.0 mm, fully 3-locular or becoming 1-locular distally, often narrowed distally for up to 1.0 mm long; style 0.3-1.5 mm long, stigma branches erect to slightly spreading, narrowly lanceolate, 3-8 x 0.5-3.0 mm, slightly shorter to equalling stamens, yellow, with short basal lobes reaching down to style base, densely papillose. Capsule subcylindrical to narrowly obconical, often curved, 5.5-17.0 x 2-6 mm, dehiscence lengthwise close to septa. Seeds depressed ellipsoid, 0.7-1.0 x 0.5-0.8 mm; testa dark brown, of isodiametric cells, outer periclinal cell walls almost entirely hemispherical. Flowering period: (late May-)June-September(-rarely November at high elevations).
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Like S. serrata but corm covered with twisted, hard roots and usually clumped, leaves entire or rarely with a few, widely spaced teeth towards base, flowers yellow, outer tepals backed with dark green and whitish median stripes and reddish brown on margins.
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