Hessea undosa Snijman

Bulb solitary or rarely forming bulblets, depressed-globose, 10-20 mm diam., with light brown parchment-like outer tunics, extended into a slender neck up to 120 mm long. Leaves absent at anthesis, 2, suberect to spreading, narrowly lorate, 60-220 x 1-2 mm, shallowly canaliculate, glabrous, subtended by a subterranean amplexicaul cataphyll and a non-amplexicaul prophyll. Inflorescence spreading to somewhat less than a hemisphere, 40-80 mm across; scape flexuose, more or less deflexed laterally, 55-90 mm long, 1-2 mm diam., leaden-grey to reddish brown, habit during fruit dispersal unknown; spathe valves narrowly lanceolate, 20-25 x 2-5 mm; bracteoles up to 5 mm long. Flowers (7-)12-20, spreading, stellate, glistening, ranging from pale to deep pink, with reddish centre and reverse, sometimes outlined with delicate pink, fading to magenta, scentless; pedicels straight to slightly upwardly curved, 25-37 mm long, green. Tepals free to the base or adnate proximally to the staminal tube for up to 1 mm, outspread above, oblong-lanceolate, 6.5-8.0 x 2-3 mm, with crisped edges. Stamens equalling or at most 2 mm shorter than the tepals, filaments thickened and connate basally into a tube 0.5-1.0 mm long, becoming outspread and subulate above; anthers centrifixed, 2 mm long and dark wine-red before opening; pollen cream-coloured. Ovary with 3-7 ovules per locule. Style up to 5 mm long, slender, with nectar collecting in a well around the base. Seeds about 3 mm across.