Corm ovoid-subglobose, 0.-2 cm long 0.5-1.5 cm wide, with brown or blackish papery or firmly chartaceous tunics with a somewhat glossy and minutely scalariform-reticulate surface produced into a distinct firm or loose or indistinct neck up to 5 cm long. Stem above ground 2-20 cm high, usually slender. Basal sheath submembranous-subhyaline, 1-5 cm long, apically ± dilated, truncate-obtuse and usually mucronate, 5-11-veined. Solitary basal leaf linear or linear-filiform, 3-22 cm long, 0.5-5 mm wide, erect and straight or curved, flat or flattened to semiterete and channelled, with often inrolled smooth or minutely scabrid margins, indistinctly veined, gradually tapering to an acuminate or apiculate point. Cauline leaves 1 or 2, acuminate or cuspidate from a broader sheathing base 2-5 mm wide, 1-7 cm long, erect or recurved. Spike usually short, 1-7-flowered, somewhat flexuous or zigzagged, with the flowers spaced 0.5-1.5 cm apart. Perianth 5-10 mm long, widely campanulate with erecto-patent to stellately spreading segments, white or cream-coloured to pink, mauve or lilac; perianth tube short (1/3-1/12 of the perianth length), 0.5-1.5 mm long, 18-veined (3 veins below each segment); free segments oblong-ovate or elliptic-oblong to (ob)lanceolate,3.5-8 mm long, 0.7-2 mm wide, 3-7-veined, with or without small dots, apically rounded or obtuse to subacute. Nectary a longitudinal groove at the base of the free segment, bordered by two ridges apically contiguous or nearly so, closely adjacent to 1-2 purple blotches below or around the middle of the segment. Filaments 1.5-4 mm long, white or whitish. Anthers oblongor elliptic-oblong, 0.6-1.5 mm long, 0.3-0.8 mm wide, yellow or orange-coloured to brick-coloured or pale-purplish brown. Pistil oblong or elliptic-oblong, somewhat 3-angled, green or purplish; free styles subulate, 2-4 mm long, initially erect or suberect, often becoming curved or hooked, with small capitate or somewhat elongate stigmas. Capsule (narrowly) elliptic-oblong, somewhat triquetrous, 0.8-1.5 cm long, 3-5 mm wide, greenish or purplish brown; styles suberect to curved or hooked. Seeds subglobose, often somewhat compressed, 1-1.-5 mm in diam., brown, with a minute beak on one end.
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Herb up to 20 cm high; corm ovoid-subglobose, 9–15 mm long, 7–11 mm in diameter; stem 2–20 cm high, usually slender; cataphyll up to 4.5(–10) cm long.. Solitary basal leaf erect, linear or linear-filiform, 3–22(–40) cm long, 0.5 mm wide; cauline leaves erect or recurved, linear, 1–7 cm long, 2–5 mm wide, apex acuminate or cuspidate from a broader sheathing base.. Flowers 1–7, sessile; perianth widely campanulate or with stellately spreading segments, 4.5–10 mm long; perianth tube 0.5–1.5 mm long; free segments ovate to lanceolate, 3.5–8 mm long, 0.7–2 mm wide, 3–7 veined, with or without small dots, apically obtuse to subacute.. Nectary a longitudinal groove at the base of the free segment, bordered by two ridges apically contiguous or nearly so, closely adjacent to purple blotches below or around the middle of the segment.. Filaments 1.5–4 mm long; anthers 0.6–1.5 mm long, 0.3–0.8 mm wide.. Ovary 3–4 mm long, 1–2 mm wide; styles 1.5–4 mm long.. Capsule 8–15 mm long., 3–5 mm in diameter; seeds 1–1.5 mm in diameter.
Tiny tunicated corm giving rise to flowering stem 3-8 in. high
Perianth white and purple, fading in older flowers
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