Deciduous geophyte, 80-250 mm high. Rhizome short, vertical; roots swollen, fused above with rhizome, split below into obovoid tubers tapering to wiry, lanate roots or some of the roots thin, wiry and swollen at the tips, firm-textured, dark brown with a leathery periderm, not staining purple when pressed. Cataphylls surrounding shoots as well as leaf-and scape-bases, papery, white with distinctive brown transverse stripes, 12-35 mm long. Leaves 2-10, erect, filiform to linear, spirally coiled through several turns, rarely straight, 80-220 x 1-5 mm, glabrous, muricate or hirsute. Inflorescence racemose with 1 or many branches, peduncle suberect, often slightly curved, terete, 1-3 mm diam. at base, shortly pubescent to hirsute; bracts ovate-acuminate, white, membranous, 3-5 x 1.5-3.0 mm, ciliate; pedicels suberect, hispid, 2-5 mm long at anthesis, ultimately ± 5-10 mm long in fruit. Flowers patent, white or pale pink or brown with brown midribs and paired light yellow maculae near base; tepals spreading but suberect and weakly clawed in basal ± 1 mm, hispid dorsally, outer elliptical, 8-10 x 1.5-2.0 mm, inner narrowly obovate, 8-10 x 2-3 mm. Stamens dimorphic, suberect below but sometimes apically upcurved; filaments filiform, white, outer ± 7 mm long, inner ± 8 mm long, retrorsely to patently scabrid but basal third of inner filaments often glabrous; anthers yellow, 1.0-1.5 mm long. Ovary globose to elliptic, ± 1.0-1.5 mm long, brownish, with ± 8 ovules per locule; style upcurved apically, filiform, ± 4-5 mm long, white. Capsule globose, 3-5 x 3-5 mm, light brown, hispid. Seeds angular, ± 1.5-2 x 1.0-1.5 x 1.0-1.5 mm, grey-black to ochraceus, surface verrucose with wart-like idioblasts (sometimes visible as white spots) containing raphide crystals.
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Plants up to 20 cm high. Roots many, some short and bulbous, others longer and thinner, with swellings near the tips. Rhizome small. Squamae membranous, long, tubular forming a neck around shoot, often up to 4 cm long, usually transversely striped with dark brown lines; apex horizontal, irregularly toothed. Leaves about 4 per shoot, filiform to linear, ca. 18 cm long (occasionally up to 45 cm), 1-5 mm broad, wiry, glossy, bright green, straight or wavy when young, shortly pubescent or glabrous. Inflorescence a branched, many flowered raceme, side branches ascending, very short in young plants; scape terete, pubescent; side branches and pedicels with short, hard, patent bristles; bracts ovate, apiculate or subulate, auriculate, white, membranous, ciliate; pedicels patent-ascending, bristly, up to 8 mm long. Flowers with a white or pinkish-mauve perianth with brown keels and maculae, hispid on the outside, segments ca. 9 mm long; filaments with short papillae; ovary with 8 ovules per cell, glabrous when young, becoming hispid with sparse, short, reflexed hairs when capsule develops. Capsule globose, hispid. Seeds not seen.
Rhizomatous perennial, up to 200 mm tall, roots many, bulbous, spreading. Leaves ± 2-8, linear, straight or wavy, smooth or softly hairy, surrounded at base by 1 or more prominent, usually transversely striped sheaths. Flowers white or pinkish mauve, spotted basally, in a compact, shortly-branched panicle. Capsules globose, ± 4 mm diam., covered with a few rough hairs, held erect.
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