厚叶沿阶草 hou ye yan jie cao

Roots slender, soft, white hairy. Leaves basal, tufted, indistinctly petiolate, abaxially glaucous and white streaked, grasslike, 38--60 × 1--1.5 cm, leathery, rigid, base attenuate, margin slightly recurved; leaf tufts ± surrounded by membranous sheaths. Scape ca. 22 cm. Inflorescence a reduced panicle, ca. 12 cm, many flowered; bracts purple-brown, subovate, basal one ca. 6 mm. Flowers usually in clusters of 2--4; pedicel 1--1.2 cm, articulate distally. Tepals purple, ca. 9 mm, outer ones linear, inner ones lanceolate. Filaments ca. 1 mm; anthers ca. 8 mm. Style ca. 9 mm, slender. Seeds ellipsoid, ca. 10 × 8 mm. Fl. Apr--May, fr. Jul--Aug.

* Dense forests; 1200--1400 m. Guangxi, SW Guizhou.