Bulb solitary, subglobose, 0.7-1.5 cm in diam., usually with bulbels at base; tunic blackish, papery or membranous, entire. Leaves shorter than scape, 2-5 mm wide, semiterete or 3-angled-semiterete, abaxially strongly 1-angled, fistulose, adaxially channeled. Scape 30-70 cm, terete, covered with leaf sheaths for 1/4-1/3 its length. Spathe 2-valved, persistent. Umbel hemispheric to globose, densely many flowered, bearing bulblets and flowers or bulblets only. Pedicels subequal, 3-5 × as long as perianth, bracteolate. Perianth pale purple to pale red; segments oblong-ovate to oblong-lanceolate, equal, 4-5.5 × 1.2-2 mm; inner ones usually shorter than outer. Filaments equal, 1/2 as long as to slightly shorter than perianth segments, connate and adnate to perianth segments, base triangular; inner ones ca. 1/2 as wide as outer at base. Ovary subglobose, with concave nectaries covered by hoodlike projections at base. Style exserted.

Astringent, carminative and diuretic (plant); emmenagogue, nervine and tonic (bulb)

Plants for a Future

In the treatment of stuffiness sensation and pain in the chest, angina pectoris, pleurisy, bronchitis, diarrhoea and tenesmus in cases of dysentery (plant)