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Description:
Plants 100–150 mm high. Corm globose, 15–20 mm diam.; tunics of coarse black fibres. Stem usually 1–4-branched at upper nodes, dull purplish where exposed, with 3 or 4 sheathing leaves ± dry and papery at flowering, imbricate, attenuate. Foliage leaf solitary, basal, longer than stem, trailing and slightly twisted and coiled, firm-textured, grey-green, ± dry at flowering, linear, channelled, 20–25 × 5–7 mm, margins conspicuously thickened, cartilaginous. Rhipidial spathes becoming dry above, inner 25–30 mm long, outer ± 1/2 as long. Flowers fugaceous, blue-violet, all tepal limbs with small, oblong, yellow nectar guides at bases, unscented; tepals oblanceolate, shortly clawed, claws erect, 1.0–1.5 mm long, clasping base of filaments, limbs spreading or slightly reflexed, inner twisted slightly counter-clockwise distally; outer 10–13 × 3.5–4.0 mm, inner 9–12 × 2.5–3.0 mm. Stamens free, filaments contiguous at base, 4–5 mm long, suberect, mauve; anthers erect, 4.5–5.0 mm long, yellow, curving inwards above at anthesis. Ovary narrowly ellipsoid, 4 mm long; style branches filiform, 4 mm long, spreading to ascending, emerging between anthers, mauve. Capsules barrel-shaped, 6–8 × 5 mm. Seeds subglobose or angled by pressure, ± 2 mm diam., reddish brown, testa surface rugulose. Flowering time: November; flowers opening ± 16:00 and wilting at ± 20:00.
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