Plants 60–100 cm high. Corms 15–20 mm in diameter; tunics membranous or becoming irregularly fibrous, reddish-brown. Foliage leaves of the flowering stem 3–4, long-sheathing, the blades to 4–8 cm long and shorter than the sheaths, lanceolate, the margins and midribs hyaline and usually slightly thickened, not imbricate; hysteranthous foliage leaves on separate shoots are not known and are probably not produced; leaves of non-flowering plants 2–3, up to 80 × 0.5–1.5 cm, linear, margins usually slightly thickened. Stem erect, simple or 1-branched. Spike 3–10-flowered, flexed at the first flower and inclined; bracts green, soft-textured, 15–25(30) mm long, lanceolate to attenuate, the inner slightly shorter than the outer. Flowers pink to purple, marked with dark-reddish spots at the base of the lower tepals; perianth tube 16–20 mm long, obliquely funnel-shaped, emerging between the bracts; tepals unequal, the uppermost arcuate, 24–30 mm long, 12–14 mm wide, the upper lateral tepals smaller, directed forwards and ultimately curving outwards, the 3 lower tepals horizontal to down-curved, 18–22 × 7–9 mm at the widest, lanceolate, not narrowed below into claws, about as long as the uppermost when viewed in profile. Filaments (16)18–22 mm long, exserted 10–12 mm; anthers 8–10 mm long. Style dividing near the anther apices, style branches 3–4 mm long. Capsules 20–25 mm long, obovoid.
