Plants 30–45 cm high. Corms 12–22 mm in diameter at the base; tunics dark-brown to blackish, coarsely fibrous. Foliage leaves 3–5, the lower 2 more or less basal, channelled for at least half their length, reaching to about the base of the inflorescence, 2–3 mm wide, linear and unifacial above, firm-textured, midrib lightly raised; the upper leaves subtending the inflorescence branches, becoming shorter above. Stem weakly compressed and 3–4-angled, usually laxly branched. Inflorescence a rounded to elongate panicle, the ultimate branches bearing (1)3–5 flowers, laxly arranged; the outer bracts 4–6(9) mm long, green below, membranous and reddish above, apically dry and brown-tipped in bud, later becoming dry for two-thirds of their length, the inner bracts about as long as the outer and entire or apically forked. Flowers zygomorphic, pale blue-mauve, the lower 3 tepals each with a white to cream-coloured nectar guide outlined in deep-violet, sometimes with a median red streak, the reverse of the tube bluish; perianth tube 7–9 mm long, c. 1.3 mm wide at the base and 3 mm wide at the mouth, narrowly campanulate, weakly curved in the upper third; tepals subequal, (7)10–13 × 4–5 mm, lanceolate, the margins somewhat undulate, the dorsal tepal suberect to arching over the stamens, the others directed forwards, the lower 3 nearly horizontal, joined for c. 1 mm more than the dorsal, sometimes each with a tooth-like callus in the median lower half. Stamens unilateral and arcuate; filaments 8.5 mm long, exserted c. 5 mm from the tube; anthers 3.5–4 mm long. Style dividing near the anther apices; style branches c. 3 mm long, each shortly to deeply divided (rarely entire). Capsules 4–5 mm long.
