Roots elongate, thick. Bulb solitary or clustered, cylindric; tunic yellowish brown, laciniate or fibrous to subreticulate. Leaves linear to oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, shorter than to subequaling scape, (2--)5--20 mm wide, midvein distinct, base narrowed into a petiole or not. Scape lateral, (10--)20--50(--110) cm, 3-angled, sometimes narrowly 3-winged, covered with leaf sheaths only at base or for ca. 1/2 its length. Spathe 1- or 2-valved, deciduous. Umbel hemispheric, laxly or densely flowered. Pedicels subequal, 2--4 × as long as perianth, ebracteolate. Perianth stellately spreading, recurved after anthesis, pale red, red, or purple to blackish purple, rarely white; segments oblong-elliptic to narrowly so, 5--9 × 1.5--2 mm, apex retuse or obtuse. Filaments subulate, shorter than to subequaling perianth segments, connate at base and adnate to perianth segments. Ovary obovoid-globose, smooth; ovules 2 per locule. Style longer than ovary. Fl. and fr. Jul--Oct.

Forest margins, scrub, meadows, stream banks; 2300--4800 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, S Hunan, SW Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].