Plants dark green, 4--10 cm tall. Bulb usually ovoid, 6--10 mm in diam.; tunic brown-yellow, subleathery; bulbels absent or occasionally 1 or 2. Leaves basal only, 1, narrowly linear, falcate, 7--16 cm × 2--3 mm, keeled abaxially. Inflorescence 2--5-flowered, umbellate or corymbose. Floral leaf narrowly lanceolate, usually longer than inflorescence, 2--4 mm wide, margin ciliate near base. Pedicels unequal, glabrous or pilose. Tepals pale yellow adaxially, tinged with green or dull purple abaxially, linear or narrowly oblong, 8--12 × ca. 2 mm. Stamens, 6--8 mm. Style ca. 2 × as long as ovary. Capsule obovoid, trigonous, ca. 1/2 as long as enlarged, persistent tepals. Seeds globose. Fl. and fr. Apr--May.

Meadows, forest margins, thickets, steppes; near sea level to 2500 m. N Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia].