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Description:
Plants 450–750 mm high. Corm depressed-globose, 25–35 mm diam.; tunics brittle-papery to membranous, decaying irregularly shaped fragments, with several cormlets around base. Stem erect, unbranched. Leaves of flowering stem 4 or 5, superposed, imbricate, blades usually shorter than sheaths or ± as long, lanceolate to sword-shaped, 6–15 mm wide, uppermost leaves sometimes entirely sheathing; foliage leaves 5 or 6, produced from separate shoots on same corm near end of flowering, ultimately reaching to 600 mm, narrowly lanceolate, 10–15 mm wide, main vein thickened and raised, margins barely thickened. Spike straight and erect, 10–16-flowered; bracts pale green, outer (28–)32–45 mm long, inner shorter, notched apically. Flowers deep yellow finely dotted or streaked irregularly with red or orange, sometimes so densely mottled as to appear orange, lower tepals clear yellow in basal 1/2, unscented; perianth tube narrowly and obliquely funnel-shaped, 44–70 mm long, slender and erect below for 25–33 mm, abruptly expanded into a wide cylindric and horizontal upper part 30–35 mm long; tepals lanceolate, unequal, dorsal largest, (26–)35–45 × ± 15–24 mm, extended ± horizontally over stamens, upper laterals directed forward below, curving outward distally, 25–42 × 14–25 mm, lower 3 tepals arching downward, 15–25 × (7–)12–16 mm, lower median slightly larger than laterals. Filaments 28–40 mm long, exserted 12–15 mm from tube; anthers 9–12 mm long, yellow to orange; pollen yellow. Style arching over stamens, dividing between base and middle of anthers, branches 4–6 mm long. Capsules ovoid-oblong, 3-lobed above and retuse, 18–25 mm long. Seeds ovate, ± 10 × 7–8 mm, broadly and evenly winged. Flowering time: mainly October, occasionally September or November.
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