Herbs, perennial, cespitose, pale to olive green or dark brown to bronze when dry, to 5 dm, not glaucous; rhizomes scarcely discernable. Stems simple, obviously winged, (1.5–)2–3.7 mm wide, glabrous, margins entire (in eastern populations) to denticulate (in western populations) apically, similar in color and texture to stem body. Leaf blades glabrous, bases not persistent in fibrous tufts. Inflorescences borne singly; spathes usually green or bronze, rarely with purplish margins, glabrous, keels usually denticulate; outer 36–76 mm, 12–46 mm longer than inner, slightly constricted proximal to apex, margins basally connate 2–5.7 mm; inner with keel ± gibbous basally, sinuous proximally, hyaline margins 0.1–0.3 mm wide, apex acuminate to acute, ending 0.9–4.3 mm proximal to recurved green apex. Flowers: tepals dark bluish violet, bases yellow; outer tepals 9–14.5 mm, apex emarginate to retuse, aristate; filaments connate ± entirely, stipitate-glandular basally; ovary similar in color to foliage. Capsules tan to dark brown, sometimes with purplish tinge apically, ± globose to obovoid, 4–6.8 mm; pedicel erect to spreading. Seeds globose to obconic, lacking obvious depression, 0.9–1.5 mm, rugulose.
