Plants often clumped, 25–45 cm. high. Rhizome short, vertical, moniliform; roots narrowly spongy to softly fibrous, bearing rounded tubers towards the tips, rarely on lateral branches. Leaves rosulate, oblong-lanceolate, narrowed at the base, attenuate, 5–40 cm. long, 0.5–4 cm. wide, flat, fimbriate and crisped at the (occasionally reddish) ciliate margins. Peduncle terete, as long as the leaves, shallowly angled, glabrous. Inflorescence usually an unbranched, dense raceme, sometimes forked at the base; floral bracts lanceolate, ciliate, abruptly narrowed to a bristle. Pedicels articulated above the middle, ± 5 mm. long in fruit, 2–5-nate at the lower nodes. Perianth white, slightly urceolate; tepals papillate, 4.5–6 mm. long, 1.5–2 mm. wide, 3–5-veined, somewhat reflexed at anthesis. Stamens as long as the perianth; filaments fusiform, papillose, 3–4 mm. long; anthers 1–1.5 mm. long. Ovary papillate; style straight, as long as the stamens. Capsule deltate to slightly 3-lobed in cross-section, emarginate, papillate, tuberculate or transversely lined when mature, ± 4 mm. long, 4–5 mm. wide. Seeds saucer-shaped, ± 2 mm. in diameter. Fig. 10.
