Robust, tuft-forming, to 30 cm high. Bulb large, to 7 cm diam.; scales brown. Leaves many, 30-60 × 1.5-4 cm, lorate, flat, narrowed above and below, margins ciliate with minute bristles. Flowers c. 1 cm long, open-rotate, variously coloured, often deep blue, in dense, many-flowered, initially corymbose, later elongate and conical, racemes; pedicels > flowers; bract 1, conspicuous, white, membranous; segments free or ± connate at base. Stamens all inserted near base of segments. Capsule subglobose, c. 7 mm diam., greenish-brown, beaked. Seeds few, ± 2.5 mm long, brownish.