Leaf 100–400 × 5–40 mm, very thick, fleshy, light green to dark green with purplish base, often with dark blotches. Flower stem 200–1,000 × 4–9 mm, 2–40-flowered. Sterile bracts 1–4, large, lowest bract leaf-like. Flowers 20–45 mm across, crowded, scented, internally pale blue, deep blue, violet or purplish with darker veins, externally brownish. Sepals and petals 10–25 × 4–10 mm, concave to flat. Column 6–8 × 2–3.5 mm, cream to white, pale blue or greenish; post-anther lobe not hooding anther, 2–3 × 1.5–2.2 mm, purplish brown with yellow apex, narrowed to slender, incurved, elongate, toothed, strap-like structure; column arms converging, 1.5–2.5 mm long, obliquely erect; hair-tufts toothbrush-like, dense, white to pale yellow, hairs 1–1.7 mm long. Anther at base of column.
Widespread and locally common; found growing in open forest, woodland, heathy forest, heathland, buttongrass moorland and around swamp margins in freely draining to moist, sandy, peaty and clay soil; occurs less commonly in dense, winter-wet swamps with the plants in standing water.
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