Hessea mathewsii W.F.Barker

Bulb solitary or occasionally forming bulblets, depressed-globose, 20-25 mm diam., with lightly fibrous and rusty-brown outer tunics; neck slender, up to 55 mm long. Leaves absent or rarely incipient at anthesis, 2(3), suberect to recurved, narrowly lorate, up to 185 x 2-5 mm, adaxially shallowly canaliculate, glabrous, reddened abaxially towards the base, sheathed by a cataphyll; cataphyll initially shortly exserted above-ground, green or red, soon withering back. Inflorescence widely spreading, 50-140 mm across; scape straight to somewhat flexuose, 45-120 mm long, 2-5 mm diam., wine-red proximally, otherwise light greyish brown, breaking off at the base in fruit; spathe valves narrowly lanceolate, 20-25 x 3-5 mm; bracteoles up to 2 mm long. Flowers 5-18, spreading, stellate, white to delicate pink, marked with rose-pink to crimson around the centre, on the median dorsal line as well as the tips of the outer tepals, turning light brown with age, strongly and unpleasantly scented; pedicels straight to somewhat upwardly curved, 40-80 mm long, green. Tepals free to the base, outspread and obliquely twisted at the base, ovate-lanceolate, 6.0-8.5 x 2-3 mm. Stamens shorter than the tepals, erect in the proximal third, otherwise outspread; filaments shortly connate at the base for 0.2 mm, otherwise free; the proximal third laterally broadened, with the adaxial surface densely covered with papillae and bearing a 1 mm long inwardly curved, rounded hook about 1 mm from the base which overarches the disc, rose-pink to crimson; the distal two-thirds subulate, smooth, white; anthers subcentrifixed, 2 mm long before opening, dark maroon; pollen cream-coloured. Ovary with up to 4 ovules per locule, with the dome elevated into 3 green trichome-covered pulvini between the style and the inner filament whorl. Style up to 5 mm long, distinctly triquetrous and deep pink proximally, tapering slightly and becoming paler distally, with nectar collecting in a pool around the style base as well as amongst the trichomes on the filaments. Seeds 3-5 mm diam.