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Description:
Plants 250–450 mm high, with dull purple cataphylls usually mottled with green or white. Corm ± globose, 20–40 mm diam.; tunics of medium to coarsely textured fibres, accumulating in a mass. Stem flexed outward above sheath of uppermost leaf, inclined above, usually 1- or 2-branched. Leaves 6 to 8, lower 4 to 6 basal, reaching to ± base of spike but often flaccid and arching downward, lanceolate 12–20 mm wide, cauline leaves decreasing in size. Spike strongly inclined to nearly horizontal, flexuose, 3–8(13)-flowered; bracts dull green to grey-purple, outer (34–)40–50(–65) mm long, inner shorter or ± as long, minutely notched apically. Flowers cream or pale greenish yellow to ivory, rarely pale pink, all tepals or excepting dorsal with a broad streak of darker colour along midline, unscented; perianth tube obliquely funnel-shaped, 40–60(–70) mm long, cylindric lower part 25–35(–55) mm long; tepals lanceolate to elliptic, obtuse to retuse, margins usually undulate, dorsal largest, inclined over stamens, 30–45 × 16–20 mm, upper laterals 25–46 × 13–18 mm, lower tepals 18–29 × 7.5–10 mm, lower median slightly longer than laterals, to 38 mm long. Filaments 20–22 mm long, exserted 4–10 mm from tube; anthers 6–9 mm long, purple; pollen cream to purple-brown. Style arching over stamens, dividing between middle and apex of anthers, branches ± 6 mm long. Capsules oblong-ellipsoid, 3-sided, 30–40 mm long. Seeds oval, 9–14 × 7–10 mm, broadly and evenly winged. Flowering time: late September to November.
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