Plants 35–100 cm high. Corms 1.5–5 cm in diameter; tunics of brown matted coarse fibres usually extending upwards into a neck 2–6 cm long; numerous basal sessile ovoid cormlets often present. Foliage leaves glaucous green, 6–10, reaching to at least the base of the spike, more usually to the middle of the spike, 6–15 mm wide, linear to narrowly lanceolate, margins and midrib hardly thickened, but differentiated from the other veins; upper cauline leaves 1–2, smaller than the basal, sometimes entirely sheathing. Stem erect, unbranched. Spike 6–14-flowered, erect; outer bracts glaucous green, 5–7(8) cm long, imbricate, 2–3 internodes long, the inner about half as long as the outer. Flowers mauve, pink or white, the lower lateral tepals with a yellow median blotch in the lower half, large, up to about 6 cm long, funnel-shaped, partly enclosed within the bracts; perianth tube 18–22 mm long, obliquely infundibuliform; tepals 45–55 mm long, oblong to broadly ovate, the uppermost ascending and slightly hooded, the lower lateral tepals smaller, curved outward. Filaments 10–12 mm, included or exserted 2–3 mm; anthers 12–15 mm long. Style dividing near the anther apices, ultimately exceeding them, style branches c. 6 mm long. Capsules 15–30 mm long, oblong to ellipsoid.
