Plants 7–12 cm high excluding the leaves. Corms 8–15 mm in diameter, globose, tapering to a sharp point below; tunics red-brown, woody or cartilaginous. Foliage leaves 1–4, straight or curved, 1–1.5 mm in diameter, filiform. Stems 1–4 per plant, more or less erect. Flowers solitary per stem; floral bracts green, striate, 12–18 mm long, the margins especially of the inner sometimes membranous and pale, the inner as long as or slightly shorter than the outer. Flowers lilac to violet, white to yellow in the centre, the tepals darkly veined; perianth tube 7–8 mm long; tepals subequal, 12–20 mm long, lanceolate, erect in the lower part and curving outwards above. Stamens free; filaments 4–5 mm long, erect, exserted c. 1 mm from the wide part of the perianth tube; anthers c. 5 mm long. Style dividing opposite the middle to upper half of the anthers, the branches c. 1 mm long. Capsules 7–10 mm long.