Tufted perennial to c. 30 cm high. Bulb tunics pink. Leaves 7–40 cm long, 5–20(–30) mm wide, channelled. Raceme lax, 8–40 cm long; flowers scented; corolla of fertile flowers oblong-urceolate, 5–9 mm long, pale olive-brown with short, light brown or white lobes; sterile flowers ascending, on long pedicels, corolla globose to obovoid, shorter than fertile flowers, bright violet, often numerous in a terminal corymbose tuft. Capsule obovoid, 10–15 mm long. Flowers late spring.
VVP. Also naturalised WA, SA. Native to Europe, occasionally observed outside of cultivation in Victoria, with plants persisting from old gardens.