Annual herb; bulbs compound with several cloves enclosed in silky white envelope; leaves linear, flat, acute, sheath about half as long as blade; flowers in subglobose umbels terminally on slender scapes; bracts spathaceous, membranous, broadly ovate, beaked; pedicels slender; perianth white or tinged with purple, lobes-6, distinct, linear-oblong; stamens-6, exserted, filaments free or connate below, inner filaments 3-toothed at apex, anthers oblong; ovary trigonous, 3-celled, few ovuled, style filiform, stigma minute; capsules oblong-obovoid, membranous, loculicidal; seeds many, black, angular.