Softly hairy, caulescent  geophyte with a leafy far-exerted stem, often branching, 5-30cm high; bulb scales unprotected. Leaves in threes, crowded on upper part of stem, grey-green, sub-sessile with scale-like petioles (leaf stalks), leaflets linear-obovate, folded, hairy beneath; flowers  several, in leaf axils, stalks longer than leaves, mauve, magenta or white with sometimes a yellow tube.