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Description:
Plants 150–250 mm high. Corm 10–15 mm diam.; tunics of dark brown, coarse fibres. Stem flexuose, usually 2–3-branched from upper nodes, with cataphylls forming a brown, fibrous collar around base. Foliage leaves 2 or 3, lowermost basal and longest, exceeding stem, remaining leaves cauline and progressively smaller, blades linear, channelled, ± 3 mm wide when opened flat; leaves subtending ± bract-like and dry distally not sheathing above. Rhipidial spathes green, at anthesis becoming dry and brown distally, attenuate; inner spathe 30–50 mm long, outer ± half as long, entirely sheathing. Flowers fugaceous, solitary in spathes, pale yellow finely veined with dull brown-purple, outer tepal limbs with yellow nectar guides at bases; tepals united in tube ± 10 mm long, limbs laxly spreading, lanceolate, 33–40 × 20 mm, claw ± 10–14 mm long [inner tepals absent]. Filaments ± 6 mm, united in lower 1–2 mm; anthers 7–9 mm long, light purple; pollen yellow. Ovary 10–12 mm long, included in middle of spathes; style branches 12–15 mm long, crests up to 10 mm long. Capsules narrowly ellipsoid, 25–30 mm long. Seeds compressed, elongate, winged at opposite ends, ± 4 mm long. Chromosome number 2n = 20. Flowering time: late September and October, occasionally in November at higher elevations; flowers lasting a single day.
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