Hessea pusilla Snijman

Bulb solitary, subglobose, 10-15 mm diam., thinly covered with brown parchment-like fibrous tunics, extended into a slender neck 10-80 mm long. Leaves absent at anthesis (1-)2, spreading, narrowly lorate, 70-190 x 0.5-1.0 mm, glabrous, sometimes flushed with red basally, subtended by a subterranean amplexicaul cataphyll and non-amplexicaul prophyll. Inflorescence somewhat clustered, 15-40(-50) mm across; scape flexuose, 20-110 mm long, 0.5-1.0 mm diam., green to reddish brown, habit during seed dispersal unknown; spathe valves linear-lanceolate, 10-20 mm x 1 mm; bracteoles up to 4 mm long. Flowers 4-11, spreading, widely funnel-shaped, glistening, pale pink with a central deeper pink star-shaped pattern, occasionally flushed with deeper pink towards the base of the undersurface, ageing to light brown, scentless; pedicels straight, 10-25 mm long, green to reddish brown. Tepals adnate proximally to the staminal tube for 0.5-1.5 mm, somewhat recurved above, oblong-lanceolate, 6-8 x 1-2 mm, channelled, sometimes with slightly undulate edges. Stamens equalling or up to 1.5 mm shorter than the tepals; filaments connate basally into a distally narrowed tube extending to 2 mm above the perigone throat, abruptly outspread and subulate above; anthers centrifixed, 1.5 mm long and wine-red before opening; pollen cream-coloured. Ovary with 2 or 3 ovules per locule. Style slender, up to 6.5 mm long with nectar collecting in a well around the base. Seeds unknown.