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Description
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Plants (120–)300–700 mm high. Corm depressed-globose, 6–9 mm diam.; tunics papery to membranous, rapidly decaying and fragmenting irregularly, with numerous slender stolons. Stem erect, flexed outward above the sheaths of the cauline leaves and inclined above, simple or 1- or 2-branched. Leaves (5)6 to 8, mostly basal, reaching to ± base of spike or shortly exceeding it, narrowly lanceolate, 5–12 mm wide, main veins evident but not or only lightly thickened, cauline leaves smaller, uppermost leaf usually sheathing only near base. Spike inclined, lightly flexuose, (3)5–8-flowered; bracts soft-textured, green to greyish purple, 20–35(–45) mm long, inner shorter, acute or notched. Flowers bright red, lower tepals and tube initially green fading to yellow and later turning reddish, unscented; perianth tube 12–15 mm long, slender below for 10–12 mm, abruptly expanded into short, ± cylindric upper part; tepals with dorsal spathulate, 26–29 mm long, extended horizontally, with a linear claw 10–13 mm long, limb obovate-concave, 13–18 × 11 mm, upper laterals joined to dorsal for 8–12 mm, free part directed forward and upward, ovate-concave, 10–13 × 8 mm, lower tepals united for ± 2 mm, much reduced, free parts 1–4 mm long, lower laterals curving upward distally to partially block mouth of tube. Filaments ± 30 mm long, exserted ± 27 mm from tube, median filament with enlarged flattened horny tooth at base in front thus dividing tube in half; anthers 5–7 mm long, attached to filaments near middle with thecae free below filament insertion, red; pollen yellow. Style extended horizontally over stamens, dividing shortly below anthers, branches 7–8 mm long, conduplicate, expanded and stigmatic only at apices. Capsules oblong-ellipsoid and 3-sided, 27–32 mm long. Seeds ovate to oblong, 7–8 × ± 5 mm, broadly and evenly winged. Flowering time: September to mid November.
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