Plants 2-4 cm tall. Corm somewhat ovoid, 5-8 mm diam., fibreless proximally, extending into a short, dark brown papery sheath distally; roots arising from proximal third of corm. Cataphylls absent at flowering. Leaves (3)4-6, membranous and shortly sheathing at base for up to 3 cm, spreading, linear, 40-80 x 2-4 mm, tapering evenly upwards, shallowly carinate, slightly succulent, entire. Inflorescences 1 in flower at a time, 1-flowered, ca. as long as leaves; scape hidden by leaf sheaths, ca. 4 x 1-2 mm, laterally compressed, whitish; bract 1, linear, inserted at ovary base, ca. 15 x 2 mm, whitish, somewhat membranous. Flower sessile, partly subterranean, more or less rotate, white with yellow throat, midveins backed with yellowish green on outer tepals, unscented; perigone tube arising from a slender, elongated, ovary beak, somewhat bowl-shaped, 2-4 x 2-3 mm; tepals 6, elliptic, 14-25 mm long, outer 4-8 mm wide, minutely mucronate, inner 2.5-4.0 mm wide. Stamens 6, suberect, outer shorter than inner or subequal, yellow; filaments inserted near base of perigone tube, outer 2.5-3.5 mm long, inner 3-4 mm, ca. as long as anthers; anthers linear, latrorse, 2.5-4.0 mm, pollen yellow. Ovary subterranean, narrowly ovoid, compressed ventrally, 3-5 x 1.5 mm, 3-locular, distal beak 20-47 mm long; style 3.0-6.5 mm long; stigma branches suberect, linear, 2.0-3.5 x 0.5 mm, ca. equalling stamens, yellow, densely papillose. Capsule partially subterranean, beaked, walls thin, disintegrating irregularly. Seeds depressed-ellipsoid, ca. 0.8 x 0.6 mm; testa black, outer periclinal cell walls densely colliculate.
Home