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Description:
Plants (200)300–600 mm high. Corm 25–35 mm diam.; tunics of densely matted fibres, with fibrous collar. Stem slender, curved outward at ground level, unbranched, 1.5–2 mm diam. Basal leaves 3 to 9, dry at flowering, blade linear to narrowly lanceolate, 90–250 × 1–7 mm, acuminate, 1–3-veined; cauline leaves 2 or 3, lowermost concealed among leaf bases, reddish brown, subulate, up to 60 mm long, clasping throughout, uppermost reduced to a minute scale. Spike densely 7–20-flowered, 30–100 mm long; bracts green at base but dry and brown above, leathery, ovate, outer 4–9 mm long, obtuse, inner slightly longer. Flowers zygomorphic, pale yellow or creamy white flushed pink, lower 3 often flushed purple toward bases or with small maroon median streak in basal 1/3, with a herbaceous or acrid fragrance; perianth tube funnel-shaped, 3–4 mm long; tepals subequal or dorsal slightly larger, suberect and recurved distally, upper laterals sometimes obliquely ascending, spathulate or oblong-spathulate, strongly narrowed or clawed in basal 1/2 or 1/3, obtuse or truncate, crispulate, dorsal 10–13 × 2.5–3 mm, others slightly shorter, lower 3 tepals joined for 1.5–2 mm. Filaments arcuate, later erect, (3–)4–7 mm long; anthers 3–5 mm long, yellow, with short apiculus 0.5 mm long. Style 8–9 mm long, dividing opposite anther bases, branches 1 mm long. Capsules inflated, ovoid or subglobose, 15–20 × 10–20 mm. Seeds up to 8 mm long, winged on angles. Chromsosome number 2n = 32. Flowering time: Nov.–Jan.(–Mar.).
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