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Description:
Plants 300–500 mm high, with cataphylls sometimes minutely puberulous. Corm conic, 8–10 mm diam.; tunics cartilaginous to papery, fragmenting into firm strips or fairly coarse fibres. Stem erect, flexed outward above sheaths of upper 3 leaves, inclined in upper 1/3, unbranched. Leaves 4, lower 1 or 2 basal, lowermost sheathing lower 1/2 of stem, reaching to between upper 1/3 of stem and base of spike, linear, 1–2(–4) mm wide, straight, 3-angled, abaxial margin with raised edges extending outward at right angles to surface, main vein and adaxial margin not thickened or raised, remaining leaves progressively shorter, ± plane, lower margins united around stem. Spike inclined, flexuose, (1)2–4-flowered; bracts green to dark grey-green with broad membranous margins, outer (20–)28–33(–50) mm long, inner shorter, notched apically. Flowers pale blue streaked, speckled, and feathered with purple, lower 3 tepals white to yellow below and more strongly marked than upper, base of tepals and upper part of tube speckled with red spots, lightly sweet-scented; perianth tube obliquely funnel-shaped, 12–15 mm long, lower cylindric part enclosed in bracts; tepals narrowly lanceolate-attenuate, upper 3 larger than lower, dorsal usually largest, 26–39 × 9–18 mm, upper laterals ± 26–37 × 8–11 mm, curving outward distally, lower 3 tepals joined to upper laterals for ± 5 mm and together for ± 3 mm, slightly narrowed and deeply channeled in lower 1/2, lower laterals 18–30 mm long, lower median longer than laterals, 24–32 mm long, all curving outward above. Filaments 13–15 mm long, exserted 5–10 mm from tube but included in flower; anthers 9–11 mm long, pale grey; pollen whitish. Style arching over stamens, dividing between upper 1/3 and tips of anthers, branches ± 3.5 mm long. Seeds ovate, 7–8 × 5–6 mm, broadly and evenly winged. Flowering time: July to mid-August, occasionally later at higher elevations.
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