Nomocharis nana (Klotzsch) E.H.Wilson

Perennial herbs, 10–30 cm tall. Bulbs oblong, 1.2–3 × 1–3 cm; scales 10–20, brown or yellowish, lanceolate, ca. 6 mm wide. Stems simple, erect, leafy, glabrous. Leaves scattered to more frequent in the upper part of stem, sessile, narrowly linear to linear lanceolate, 2.5–10(–12) × 0.1–0.8 cm, upper leaves exceeding the flower, lower ones sometimes wider than upper, apex blunt, curved or straight, margin entire, both surfaces glabrous, veins 5, parallel. Inflorescences single terminal flower, subtended by linear leaf-like bracts. Flowers small, campanulate, drooping; pedical 1–3 cm. Tepals reddish purple or mauve, white or pale yellow, with lighter or darker spots, elliptic, unequal, outer 1.2–3.2 × 0.4–1.2 cm, inner 1.2–3.2 × 0.6–1.5 cm, apex contracted, not reflexed; basal nectarines present adaxially, fringed on both surfaces. Filaments (0.6–)1–1.6 cm, subulate, glabrous to hairy; anthers orange yellow to dark brown, 3–4 mm, dorsifixed. Ovary cylindric or oblong, 9–12 × 3–5 mm; style 4–7 mm; stigma white, 3-lobed. Capsule pale yellow, tinged purplish on ribs, oblong-ellipsoid, 1.6–3.5 × 1.4–2.5 cm. Seeds pear shaped, narrowly winged.

Nepal, W Himalaya, E Himalaya, Tibetan Plateau, Assam–Burma, and E Asia.

Key to Species

1 a. Flowers purple or mauve……………………………………………………………….1. L. nanum var. nanum

b. Flowers whitish or yellowish………………………………………………………….2. L. nanum var. flavidum