Corms ovoid, 1.5--2.5 × 2(--2.5) cm; tunic brown, longitudinally striate. Basal leaves usually 3--8, linear. Flowering stem 10--40 cm, base with 1--3 smaller leaves; bracts smaller than involucres, membranous. Inflorescence an umbel or short raceme, 3--6-flowered, sometimes basal leaf axil of flowering stem with 1--3 additional flowers; involucres 2 or 3, white or green, lanceolate, to 3.5 cm, membranous, apex acuminate and aristate. Pedicels unequal. Perianth azure to dark violet or light blue; segments spreading, free, sometimes laxly connivent proximally into a ca. 1 cm long pseudotube, oblanceolate to narrowly so, 2--3.5 cm × 1--7 mm, veins 3--5 at middle, apex subacute. Stamens unequal, outer ones longer than inner; filament purple, subfiliform, glabrous; anther basifixed, straight. Fl. Apr--Jun.

Valleys, stony slopes, sandy places, waste grasslands. N Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Turkmenistan].