Freesia speciosa L.Bolus

Plants (80-)120-200(-300) mm high. Corm conic, 15-30 mm diam., tunics light brown, of medium-coarse-textured fibres. Stem erect, smooth but minutely verrucose on angles below each flower, usually simple. Leaves 5 or 6, inclined to suberect, usually ± half as long as stem, oblong, 25-100 x 14-20 mm, obtuse to subobtuse, apiculate, firm-textured or softer. Spike deflexed, 3-to 6-flowered; bracts ovate, membranous, green below when young but dry in upper 2/3, later translucent with brown veins and rust-coloured speckling on apices, 8-10 mm long, acute but lower bracts tricuspidate, inner up to 1 mm longer. Flowers 50-70 mm long, pale creamy yellow, base of lowermost tepal and inner edges of lower lateral tepals flushed orange, all three lower tepals with brown midline, strongly lily-scented, with sour or bitter note during day; perianth tube funnel-shaped, 35-50 mm long with basal tubular portion 15-20 mm long, widening ± abruptly into cylindric-flared upper portion; tepals with dorsal largest, suberect, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 15-18 x 14-15 mm, upper laterals elliptic, lower tepals recurved, lower laterals broadly elliptical to suborbicular, 14-15 x 11-12 mm, lower median oblong, 14-15 x 7-8 mm. Filaments arcuate, 27-33 mm long, included; anthers 6-7 mm long. Style dividing at or slightly beyond anther apices. Capsules short-oblong or oblong-ovoid, 9-13 x 8-10 mm, warty or papillate. Seeds globose, 2.5-3.0 mm diam., smooth or finely wrinkled, glossy dark or reddish brown.