Bulb looks just like that of a tulip. These desert-adapted flowers emerge and bloom in spring, then the tops dry up until fall, when overwintering roots emerge from bases of the bulbs.
The 'spur' on the bottom right corner of the bulb reminds me of Colchicum, which would make it a corm, not a bulb. The broad leaf and the fact that a corm that size hasn't flowered yet this season also supports it being a fall blooming Colchicum. Did the foliage bear resemblance to a large broad leaf allium, growing on a short stalk?
