The beautiful, impressive, delicate flowers of Colchicum bivonae appear in autumn after the first rains. The translucent white tepals are chequered with pale purple surround 6 bright yellow stamens, and 3 curved white styles. The tepals fuse to form a white tube, which emerges directly from the earth. The leaves do not appear until spring.

Members of the lily family, colchicums are not true crocuses, differing in a number of botanical details most obviously having six stamens; crocuses have three.

All members of the Colchicum family produce a substance, colchicine, which although in sufficient dose is highly poisonous, is still considered an effective treatment for the painful condition, gout.