Deciduous geophyte, 80-260 mm high. Rhizome short, vertical; roots swollen, fused above with rhizome, split below into finger-like, wiry roots that are swollen towards the tips, firm-textured, white with smooth periderm, not staining purple when pressed. Cataphylls surrounding shoots as well as leaf-and scape-bases, papery, white, 10-30 mm long. Leaves 4-12, erect, linear-canaliculate, white basally, 80-260 x 2-3 mm, hirsute. Inflorescence racemose or paniculate with 3 or many branches, peduncle suberect, often slightly curved, semi-terete,3-6 mm diam. at base, hirsute; bracts ovate-acuminate, white, membranous, 8-10 x 2-4 mm, ciliate; pedicels erect, ± 5-10 mm long at anthesis, ultimately ± 8-15 mm long in fruit. Flowers patent, pinkish-white with pinkish brown midribs and paired yellow maculae near base, opening mid-morning and fading late afternoon, unscented; tepals spreading but suberect and weakly clawed in basal ± 1 mm, outer elliptical, 7-9 x 1.5-2.0 mm, inner narrowly obovate, 7-9 x 2.5-3.0 mm. Stamens dimorphic, suberect below but sometimes apically upcurved and lowermost filament declinate; filaments filiform, white, outer ± 4 mm long, inner ± 5 mm long, retrorsely scabrid but basal third of inner filaments patently scabrid; anthers yellow,0.5-1.0 mm long. Ovary globose, ± 1.0-1.5 mm long, brownish, with ± 10-12 ovules per locule; style upcurved apically, filiform, ± 4-5 mm long, white. Capsule globose, 5-6 x 4-5 mm, light brown. Seeds angular, ± 1.5-2.0 x 1.0-1.5 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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Small plants up to 18 cm long, hirsute. Roots many, somewhat swollen but not bulbous. Rhizome small. Squamae membranous, broadly oblong, loosely arranged around the shoots, leaf-and scape-bases. Leaves many, linear, up to 16 cm long, 2 mm broad, tapering gradually to the apex, covered with long, tawny, retrorse hairs. Inflorescence a many flowered, fairly compact raceme, in some plants sub-umbellate at the base; scape short, firm, ca. 7 cm long, setose with tawny, retrorse hairs; bracts conspicuous, white, membranous, deltoid, cuspidate, margin irregularly dentate; pedicels filiform, hirsute, firm in fruit up to 8 mm, about as long as the bracts. Flowers with a mauve or pink, maculate perianth (maculae near the middle of segment), segments 8 mm. spreading (or recurved?); filaments shortly papillate, inner connivent? (no live flower seen); ovary with 10 ovules per cell. Capsule globose, 5 mm in diam. glabrous. Seeds not seen.
Rhizomatous perennial, up to 180 mm tall, roots several, spreading, swollen towards tips. Leaves 3-12, linear, covered with long, tawny hairs, rarely smooth. Flowers pale pink, in a compact, many-branched panicle with conspicuous, white bracts. Capsules globose, 5 mm diam., held erect.
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