Gagea filiformis (Ledeb.) Kar. & Kir.

Plants 5--10 cm tall. Bulb ovoid-globose, 4--9 mm in diam.; tunic bright brown or chestnut brown, submembranous; bulbel 1, within tunic, small. Leaves basal only, 1, narrowly linear, 5--13 cm × 2--4(--8) mm. Inflorescence (1--)3--7(or more)-flowered, umbellate or corymbose. Floral leaf linear-lanceolate, equaling or slightly longer than inflorescence, 3--8 mm wide, glabrous or pilose; bracteoles pubescent. Tepals yellowish adaxially, yellow-green abaxially, ca. 8 mm, sometimes slightly saccate at base. Pedicel glabrous or pilose. Stamens 4.5--6 mm; filaments ca. 4 mm. Style slightly longer than ovary; stigma capitate, scarcely lobed. Capsule obovoid, 3-angled, 1/5--2/5 as long as enlarged, persistent tepals. Seeds red-brown, ovoid-globose, ca. 1.5 × 1 mm. Fl. and fr. Apr--May.

N and W Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia].

Forests, thickets, meadows, grasslands, dry slopes, plains, deserts; near sea level to 2300 m.

Ornithogalum filiforme Ledebour, Fl. Altaic. 2: 30. 1830; Gagea minuta Grossheim; G. nigra L. Z. Shue; G. pseudorubescens Pascher; G. sacculifera Regel.

Gagea filiformis is an Asian species of plants in the lily family, native to Russia (Altay Krai), China (Xinjiang), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Mongolia.

Gagea filiformis is a bulb-forming perennial up to 10 cm tall. Flowers are yellow or yellow-green.