Rhizomes short. Roots slender. Leaves yellowish green, linear, 6--10 cm × 2--6 mm at anthesis, to 34 cm × 3--7 mm in fruit, midvein absent, apex apiculate. Flowering stems not emerging above ground; spathes 2 or 3, green, broadly lanceolate, 5--6 cm × 1--1.8 mm, 1-flowered, apex acuminate. Flowers pale purple to mauve-purple, blotched darker, 5--6 cm in diam.; pedicel 1--1.5 cm. Perianth tube trumpet-shaped, 5.5--6 cm; outer segments spatulate, 4--5 × ca. 1.5 cm, claw and base of limb with dense beard of white-based, yellow-tipped hairs, apex of limb truncate; inner segments erect, oblanceolate, ca. 4 × 1 cm. Stamens 2--2.3 cm. Ovary ca. 6 cm. Style branches ca. 3.2 cm × 6 mm. Capsule globose, 2--2.5 × 1.5--1.8 cm, shortly beaked. Seeds reddish brown, with milky yellow aril. 2 n = 22, 24.

There has been confusion between this species and Iris dolichosiphon. According to one of us (Noltie), I. kemaonensis is characterized by its shorter perianth tube, erect inner perianth segments, and the usually paler background color of its flowers, which are strongly mottled; it is more western in distribution, and in China is probably restricted to Xizang.

Alpine pastures; 3500--4200 m. Xizang [Bhutan, N India, Nepal].