Plants (1–)7–12 cm high excluding the leaves. Corm ovoid, tapering below to an oblique rounded base, 7–10 mm in diam.; tunics woody or cartilaginous, red-brown. Foliage leaves (2–)3–5, mostly 8–15 mm long, oblong in transverse section, the midrib raised and with a narrow central hyaline ridge, straight and erect to falcate, occasionally spreading on the ground in depauperate plants, c. 1 mm in diam. Flowering stems 1–4 per plant, ± erect, becoming slightly falcate after anthesis, 0.6–1 mm in diam.; outer bracts green, usually with narrow membranous margins, the inner bracts with broad scarious margins streaked with brown, occasionally entirely scarious, 12–18 mm long, as long as or slightly shorter than the outer. Flowers blue, purple or violet, rarely almost white, cream to yellow in the centre, the tepals with bands of darker pigment over the 3 main veins, particularly marked on the reverse; perianth tube 4–5 mm long; tepals lanceolate, (10–)16–20 x 4–6 mm, erect below, curving outwards above, thus forming a cup. Filaments 4–6 mm long, erect, free, exserted 3–4 mm from the wide part of the tube; anthers 4–6 mm long. Ovary ovoid, c. 3 mm long; style dividing between the upper third and slightly beyond the apex of the anthers, the branches c. 3 mm long. Capsules ovoid-oblong, 7–10 mm long.
