The leaves of Cyanella pentheri grow in a basal tuft. They are narrowly linear, grey-green and hairy. Much shorter than the inflorescence on a branched, wiry stem, some of the leaves are already withering below the flowers in September.
Some consider this plant a variant of C. hyacinthoides, the main difference in these thread-like leaves (Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist).