Plant 7-17 cm tall at flowering. Bulb covered by coarsely reticulate-fibrous tunics, sometimes bulbils present at the base. Leaves 1-3 from each bulb, not longer than flowers, later up to 30 cm long, 1.5-3.0 mm broad, 4 angled in cross section. Aerial stem obsolescent. Flower solitary. Spathe up to 9.0 cm long, outer green, enclosing the narrow and inner membranous one. Pedicel up to 4.0 cm. Perianth very variable in colour, pale blue to violet, purple; tube 4-7 cm long, mostly covered by spathe; falls 3.2-5.5 cm long, haft 2.1-3.8 cm long, darker than rests of the flower; standards 3-5.2 cm long, erect oblanceolate. Stamens with filaments 1-2 cm; anthers 6-11 mm long. Stylar branches 3-5 cm long, with lobes 1-1.5 cm long, stigma deeply bilobed. Capsule 3.0-5.5 cm long, ellipsoid, shortly beaked, more or less at the ground level. Seeds arillate.
Fl. Per: February-May.
Holotype: [USSR, Caucasia] habitat in Iberia, D. Adam (LE ?) vide B. Mathew, 1984 (l.c.).
We have not seen any specimen from Pakistan and Kashmir. It is being included here on the authority of R.R. Stewart (l.c.) who reports I. reticulata as 'wild in the saffron fields at Pampur, Kashmir Valley; at c. 5300 ft.'.
Distribution: Turkey, Iraq, Iran, former U.S.S.R. (Caucasus and Trancaucasus), 600-2700 m (Killens in SGBIS l.c.: 288 1997); Kashmir valley (Stewart, 1972).
Grows in mountain grassland, limestone rocks, stony slopes, oak forest and scrub.
