Ixia erubescens Goldblatt

Plants 120-300 mm high, usually forming clumps, stem simple, rarely 1-branched, sheathed basally by membranous cataphylls. Corm mostly 5-8 mm diam., tunics of fine fibres, usually with large cormlets at base. Leaves 4-6, ± lanceolate, all basal, ± 1/3 to 1/4 as long as stem, 2-4(-6) mm wide, main vein well developed, margins or half blade crisped and deeply undulate. Spike erect, lax, secund, weakly flexuose, mostly 6-10-flowered, flowers mostly 15-25 mm apart; bracts mostly green, becoming translucent at tips, turning purple along distal margins, 3-4 mm long, outer with 3 acute-attenuate cusps, obscurely 3-veined, inner 2-veined and acutely 2-toothed. Flowers ± secund with tepals held ± vertically, zygomorphic with stamens unilateral, pink, yellow-green in throat edged with dark purple at tepal bases, unscented; perianth tube filiform, 2-3 mm long, tightly clasping style; tepals ovate, spreading ± at right angles to tube, 8-11 x 4-6 mm, outer tepals slightly narrower than inner. Stamens unilateral; filaments filiform, ± 2 mm long, greenish white, drying yellow; anthers oblong, ± 1.5 mm long, yellow, horizontal, becoming slightly pendent, thecae acute and recurved at base, dehiscing incompletely by a narrow slit at base, yellow. Style dividing at base of filaments, style branches 1.5-2.0 mm long, greenish white, falcate, recurved in distal third, tubular, stigmatic apically. Flowering time: mainly mid-Aug.-mid-Sept.