Plants tufted, 10–100 cm. high. Rhizome short, moniliform, horizontal, covered with fibrous remains of old leaf-bases; roots thin, wiry, bearing distinct distant tubers. Leaves subdistichous to distichous, the innermost sheathing below, folded or flat, broadly linear to lanceolate, glabrous (sometimes papillate, rarely with ciliate margins), sometimes petiolate, glabrous, 10–80 cm. long, 0.5–4 cm. wide, midribs (and sometimes veins) prominent, sometimes papillate, cataphylls and outer leaf-bases sometimes with reddish-brown spots or stripes, sometimes cataphylls gradually turning to falcate leaves. Peduncle flat, winged, glabrous to slightly papillate, 10–100 cm. long. Inflorescence usually unbranched (sometimes a few basal branches), open with elongated internodes, up to 25 cm. long; rhachis sinuate, winged in lower part, terete above, glabrous; floral bracts small, lanceolate, acute, sometimes purplish, up to 12 mm. long. Pedicels articulated below or close to the middle (sometimes close to the base), 4–12 mm. long in fruit, 2–4(–7)-nate at the lower nodes. Tepals patent, 10–15(–20) mm. long, 4–7 mm. wide, (3–)5–7-veined, whitish, outer ones usually pinkish or brownish-pinkish (sometimes greenish) striped on the outside, inner ones white, all turning reddish when withering. Stamens declinate, shorter than the perianth, arranged in two groups, usually 4 in the upper and 2 in the lower; filaments glabrous, 2–6 mm., shorter than the 4–7 mm. long anthers. Style declinate, slightly exserted. Capsule obovoid, rounded-deltate in cross-section, transversely ridged, emarginate, 6–8.5 mm. long, covered by perianth-remnants. Seeds irregularly folded, 1–2 mm. in diameter.
