Hessea stellaris Herb.

Bulb solitary, subglobose, 15-25 mm diam., with thinly fibrous light brown outer tunics, extended into a slender neck 35-170 mm long. Leaves absent or incipient at anthesis, 2, initially erect, later recurved, narrowly lorate, 100-210 x 1-7 mm,' shiny green, often reddened proximally, glabrous, subtended by a subterranean amplexicaul cataphyll and non-amplexicaul prophyll. Inflorescence ranging from somewhat clustered to widely spreading, 35-120 mm across; scape more or less straight, deflexed laterally, 50-150 mm long, l-2 mm diam., light green, reddened basally, breaking off at the base in fruit; spathe valves narrowly lanceolate, 20-30 x 24 mm; bracteoles up to 10 mm long. Flowers 6-30, spreading, stellate, pale to dark pink, with a darker pink or occasionally wine-red star-shaped central pattern, ageing to light brown, scented or not; pedicels straight, 12-55 mm long, light green. Tepals adnate to the staminal tube for (0.5)1.0-3.5 mm, outspread above, oblong-lanceolate, 6.0-9.5 x 1.75-3.0 mm, somewhat channelled, with plane edges or occasionally somewhat undulate towards the perigone throat. Stamens ranging from 4 mm shorter to equalling the tepals, rarely exceeding the tepals by 2 mm, spreading; filaments connate basally into an upwardly widened tube reaching up to 1.0(-1.5) mm beyond the perigone throat and always remaining shorter than the perigone tube, subulate above; anthers centrifixed, 2 mm long and wine-red before opening; pollen cream-coloured. Ovary with up to 4 ovules per locule. Style ultimately up to 5-9 mm long, subtriquetrous, slender throughout, with nectar collecting in a well around the base. Seeds 3.0-4.5 mm diam. Flowering usually commences in April in the eastern regions (Matjiesfontein to Oudtshoorn) and May to June and occasionally July in the northern and western areas of the distribution range.