Plants 5-8 cm. high excluding the leaves. Corm ovoid, tapering below to a blunt point, 8-15 mm. in diameter, tunics woody or cartilaginous, red-brown, usually extending upward in a fibrous neck around the base of the stem. Foliage leaves (1-)2-6, oval in transverse section, usually straight, ± 1 mm. in diameter, the midrib with a broad central hyaline ridge. Flowering stems 1-4 per plant, ± erect, 0.7-1 mm. in diameter; outer bracts green and lightly striate, 1.2-1.8 cm. long, the inner bracts similar or often with narrow membranous margins, as long or slightly shorter than the outer. Flowers blue, purple or violet, yellow in the centre, the tepals with darker bands of pigment over the 3 main veins, particularly so on the reverse; perianth-tube 7-8 mm. long; tepals lanceolate, erect below, curving outwards above, 1.2-1.8 cm. long. Filaments 4-5 mm. long, erect, free, exserted ± 1 mm. from the wide part of the tube; anthers ± 5 mm. long. Ovary ovoid, ± 3 mm. long, style dividing opposite the upper third of the anthers, the branches ± 1 mm. long, usually arching shortly above the anther-apices, occasionally substantially exceeding the anthers. Capsules ovoid-oblong, 7-10 mm. long. Fig. 7/5-6.