Bulb solitary or clustered, cylindric, 0.5--1 cm in diam.; tunic grayish brown, laciniate, slightly fibrous. Leaves shorter than to subequaling scape, 2--4 mm wide, terete, fistulose. Scape 7--60 cm, terete, covered with leaf sheaths only at base. Spathe 2-valved, blue, persistent. Umbel globose, densely many flowered. Pedicels unequal; outer ones usually shorter than perianth; inner ones usually longer than perianth, ebracteolate. Perianth purple-red, minutely black dotted, and later becoming yellowish white to grayish pink, or else whitish yellow to pink with yellowish base and later becoming yellowish white, or else brass yellow to copper red, lustrous, and later becoming pale yellow with pinkish base and apex; segments oblong-obovate, oblong, or oblong-lanceolate, 7--16 × 3--4 mm, margin sometimes minutely denticulate, apex rounded, subacute, or attenuate; inner ones slightly shorter than or rarely equaling outer. Filaments 5.5--8 mm, shorter than perianth segments, connate into a tube for 1/3--3/4 their length, adnate to perianth segments for 1/2--2/3 of connate part; outer ones subulate; inner ones triangular or shoulder-shaped at base. Ovary obovoid, base usually constricted into a short stipe, with concave nectaries. Style 3.5--7 mm; stigma entire or 3-cleft. Fl. and fr. Jun--Sep. 2 n = 16, 32.

Meadows, high mountain bogs, streamsides, moist places; 2400--5400 m. Gansu, Qinghai, W Sichuan, Xinjiang, E and NW Xizang, NW Yunnan [Afghanistan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan].