Tuber large and fleshy, like a turnip, tasting something like liquorice (Grant). Stem repeatedly trichotomously or dichotomously branched from the base, 8–9 in. high, glabrous. Leaves 2–3 1/2 in. long, 1/3– 1/2 lin. broad, linear, shortly and abruptly uncinate-mucronulate at the apex, glabrous. Flowers solitary, sublateral between the bases of the leaves; pedicels 6–7 lin. long, glabrous, occasionally bearing a linear bract at about their middle. Sepals 1 1/2–2 lin. long, glabrous. Corolla stellate-rotate, 5-lobed nearly to the base; lobes 9–10 lin. long, 1–1 1/2 lin. broad at their base, lanceolate-linear, acute, glabrous, dark purple (Grant). Outer corona 10-toothed; teeth in 5 contiguous pairs, 3/4–1 lin. long, deltoid-acuminate, ascending, glabrous; inner coronal-lobes scarcely 1/4 lin. long, oblong, obtuse, incumbent on the backs of the anthers and shorter than them, dorsally adnate to the outer corona, glabrous.
