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Description:
Plants 60–160(–220) mm high. Corm broadly obconic (triangular in outline), 10–15 mm diam., up to 40 mm below ground, tunics dark brown to blackish, basal margins with fine laterally extended teeth 1–3(–4) mm long, tunics often accumulating. Stem mostly 2–3-branched or unbranched; branches produced well above ground level, slightly compressed, oval in section, occasionally lightly or obscurely angled, angles smooth. Leaves 3–4, only lowermost well-developed, straight and linear or falcate, usually ± as long as to twice as long as stem, rarely slightly shorter, 2–3(–4) mm wide, corrugately ribbed; remaining leaves < 1/2 as long as lowermost and progressively more bract-like above. Inflorescences spikes of 9–16 flowers, lateral spikes with fewer flowers, 2-ranked in bud, becoming spiral after anthesis; outer bract grey-green, transparent on veins, acute, 7–11 mm long, folded on midline but not keeled, apices acute and curving upward, inner bract 1/2 to 1/3 as long as outer, transparent with two green keels, forked at tip. Flowers zygomorphic, pale lilac-pink, lower tepals each with darker blotch or streak in midline and claw-like cusp near base, cusp ± white surrounded basally by red-purple zone, occasionally upper lateral tepals also lightly marked in lower 1/2, lightly sweet-scented; perianth tube 10–15 mm long, slender below, curving outward and wider in upper 1/3; tepals narrowly lanceolate to ± linear, dorsal 9–11 × 2–3 mm, ± erect, upper laterals recurving from base, lower 3 united for ± 2 mm, extending horizontally below, flexed downward distally. Stamens unilateral, ± erect; filaments ± 6 mm long, exserted ± 3 mm from tube; anthers ± 3 mm long, parallel, light purple; pollen ± white. Style straight, adaxial to stamens, dividing between middle and apex of anthers; branches ± 2.5 mm long, deeply divided and recurved. Capsules globose-trigonous, ± 4–5 mm long. Seeds globose, 1.6–2 mm diam., smooth, brown, glossy. Flowering time: mainly in July, occasionally mid to late August, and once recorded in bloom in early September.
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