Perennial, geophytic herb with 1 or 2 stems, which are 300–520 mm long, usually resprouting after winter (or fire) annually. The rootstock is tuberous and at least as long as the stems. The leaves are spreading-erect, lance-shaped to broadly ovate, 42–77 × 23–47 mm; the apex is obtuse, acute or acuminate, or mucronate; the base cuneate/attenuate or rounded. The midrib and secondary veins on the leaves are prominent.

The petiole is 4.0–13.2 mm long. Stalkless inflorescences carry 2–5 flowers in an umbel. The corolla of the flower is saucer-shaped, horizontally spreading and the corolla lobes are green or greenish yellow, with deep purple blotches.

The tips of the corolla are slightly reflexed, lobes free for most of their length, 11–17 × 5–12 mm. The gynostegial column, anther wings and anther appendages are completely hidden by the purple, broadly-ovate coronal blades, which are curved above the style apex. The staminal column is stipitate. The corona lobes are maroon-purple with complicate-spathulate lobes that are 5–7 mm high, basal proximal lobe 3–5 mm long, with 2, erect wings, distal appendage dilated, deltoid in shape, 7–8 mm long, inflexed to enclose style-stigma-head. In fruit, the pedicels are characteristically twisted, with the follicles ellipsoid, 95–100 × 25 mm, glabrous and 6-winged.

The seeds are 6–7 mm long, bi-facially flattened, with the one side convex, the other concave. Plants flower from October to February, but mostly in mid-summer. In drier years, plants tend to be smaller and in wetter years, they are larger in all aspects.