Plants (1-)7-12 cm. high excluding the leaves. Corm globose, tapering below to an oblique rounded base, 7-10 mm. in diameter, tunics woody or cartilaginous, red-brown. Foliage leaves (2-)3-5, mostly 8-15 mm. long, oblong in transverse section (when dried appearing plane), the midrib lightly raised, and with a narrow central hyaline ridge, usually straight and erect (falcate to spreading on the ground in depauperate plants), ± 1 mm. in diameter. Flowering stems 1-4 per plant, ± erect, becoming slightly falcate after anthesis, 0.6-1 mm. in diameter; outer bracts green, usually with narrow membranous margins, the inner bracts with broad scarious margins streaked with brown, 1.2-1.8 cm. long, as long or slightly shorter than the outer. Flowers blue, purple or violet, occasionally almost white, yellow in the centre, the tepals with bands of darker pigment over the 3 main veins, particularly so on the reverse; perianth-tube 4-5 mm. long; tepals lanceolate, erect below, curving outwards above, 10-16 × 3-4 mm. Filaments ± 3-4 mm. long, erect, free, exserted ± 1 mm. from the wide part of the tube; anthers ± 3 mm. long. Ovary ovoid, ± 3 mm. long; style dividing between the upper third and apex of the anthers, the branches ± 1.5 mm. long, usually arching outward shortly above the anther-apices, occasionally exceeding the anthers by 2-3 mm. Capsules ovoid-oblong, 7-10 mm. long.