Deciduous geophyte, 50-200 mm high. Rhizome short, vertical; roots swollen, fused above with rhizome, split below into elongate to obovoid tubers tapering to wiry roots, firm-textured, bright red with flaking, dark brown, leathery periderm, staining purple when pressed. Cataphylls surrounding shoots as well as leaf-and scape-bases, papery, white tinged red, 5-18 mm long. Leaves 3-7, erect or deflexed to one side, linear-canaliculate, flushed pink basally, 40-160 x 1-3 mm, glabrous, muricate or hirsute. Inflorescence racemose with 1-3 branches, peduncle suberect, often slightly curved, terete, 1-2 mm diam. at base, shortly pubescent; bracts ovate-acuminate, white, papery, 2-4 x 1-2 mm, glabrous; pedicels patent, 10-20 mm long at anthesis, ultimately ± 15-40 mm long in fruit. Flowers patent, white with brown midribs and paired yellow maculaen ear base, opening late afternoon, faintly sweet scented; tepals spreading but suberect and weakly clawed in basal ± 1 mm, outer elliptical, 8-10 x 1-2 mm, inner narrowly obovate, 8-10 x 2-3 mm. Stamens dimorphic, suberect; filaments filiform, white, outer ± 6 mm long, inner ± 7 mm long, retrorsely scabrid but basal third of outer filaments sometimes glabrous; anthers yellow, 1.0-1.5 mm long. Ovary globose, ± 1.0-1.5 mm long, brownish, with ± 6 ovules per locule; style weakly decurved, filiform, ± 7-8 mm long, white. Capsule globose to obovoid, 2-4 x 2-4 mm, light brown. Seeds angular, ± 1.5-2 x 1.0-x 1.0-1.5 mm, black, surface verrucose with wart-like idioblasts (sometimes visible as white spots) containing raphide crystals.
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Plants up to 15 cm high. Roots fused above with rhizome, split below into 2-3 tubers or entire, soft when young, becoming hard and brown skinned when old. Rhizome small. Squamae small, thin, transparent, white, membranous. Leaves about7 per shoot, filiform, 7-15 cm long, 1 mm broad, glabrous or with a few silky hairs, apex apiculate. Inflorescence with 1-3 spreading branches nearly as long as the main branch, about as long as the leaves; scape short, up to 5 cm, shortly pubescent; rhachis glabrous; bracts small subulate; pedicels patent up to 2-5 cm long, apex occasionally somewhat recurved in fruit. Flowers with a white perianth, maculate with yellow spots, segments 8 mm long; filaments retrorsely papillate; ovary with 6 ovules per cell. Capsule globose, 4 mm. Seeds (immature) with hyaline ridges.
Rhizomatous perennial, up to 150 mm tall, roots fused with rhizome into 2 or 3 hard tubers, staining purple when pressed. Leaves 3-7, filiform, glabrous to hispid. Flowers white, spotted yellow at base, pedicels widely spreading to 30 mm long, in a 1-3 branched raceme. Capsule globose, ± 3 mm diam., somewhat pendulous.
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