Rhizomes purple brown, thick, 1.3--3 cm in diam. Roots thick. Leaves erect or slightly curved, grayish green, sword-shaped, 20--60 × 1--2 cm, midvein absent. Flowering stems with 1--4 very short, lateral branches, thick, 20--40 cm × ca. 5 mm; spathes 3, green, 5.5--9 × ca. 2 cm, 2-flowered. Flowers yellow or violet, 5--7 cm in diam.; pedicel 1.5--3 cm. Perianth tube ca. 1 cm; outer segments fiddle-shaped, with a constriction between claw and limb, claw 2--3 × ca. 0.5 cm, limb oblong or oblanceolate, ca. 1.5 × 1 cm; inner segments oblanceolate, ca. 3.5 cm × 6--8 mm. Stamens ca. 3 cm; anthers yellow. Ovary 3.5--4 cm, distally attenuate into a long, slender beak. Style branches ca. 3.5 cm × 6 mm. Capsule greenish brown, ellipsoid-cylindric, 6--9 × 2--2.5 cm, with a pair of ridges at each angle, apex long beaked. Seeds pyriform, 5--6 mm in diam.; testa yellowish maroon, glossy, papery. Fl. May--Jun, fr. Jul--Aug.

One or two varieties occur in China; they are often treated as varieties or subspecies of the widespread Iris spuria Linnaeus.

Grasslands, hillsides, wet salty soils. Gansu, Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan; SW Asia, E Europe (Romania, Ukraine)].