Lachenalia contaminata Aiton

Geophyte, 60-300 mm high. Bulb subglobose, 10-20 mm in diameter, offset-forming; tunic multilayered, outer layers dark brown, spongy; inner cataphyll translucent white, adhering to leaf bases, apex obtuse. Leaves 3-11, linear, 90-210 x 1-4 mm, rosulate, spreading to erect, light to dark green, lower half canaliculate, becoming terete above, upper surface plain or sporadically to heavily marked with purplish-maroon spots, lower surface plain, or lower half lightly to heavily shaded with purplish-maroon; leaf bases loosely surrounding base of scape, 20-35 mm long, subterranean, white, plain or with brownish-magenta blotches; primary seedling leaf terete, erect. Inflorescence racemose, many-flowered, dense, sterile apex short; scape erect to suberect, light green to dull purplish-maroon, marked with minute to relatively large, darker purplish-maroon blotches, 40-190 mm long; rachis light green, plain or lightly to heavily marked with purplish-maroon blotches; pedicels suberect, white, 1-2 mm long; bracts cup-shaped, green at base of inflorescence, shading to white above with purplish-maroon median keels, 1-3 x 1-4 mm. Perianth zygomorphic, narrowly campanulate, spreading to suberect, spice-scented; tube cup-shaped, white, 2-3 mm long; outer tepals ovate, white with purplish-maroon or brown gibbosities, median keels ageing to purplish-maroon, 6-7 x 3-4 mm; inner tepals narrowly obovate, spreading, white, median keels dark maroon or brown, ageing to purplish-maroon, 7-8 x 3-4 mm. Stamens included to well exserted, filaments more or less straight, white, 5-10 mm long; anthers maroon, pollen yellow. Ovary ellipsoid, 2-3 x 2 mm, light green, style included to well exserted, straight, white, 4-8 mm long. Capsule ellipsoid, 7-8 x 4-5 mm. Seed globose, glossy, black, 0.9-1.1 x 0.8-1.0 mm; strophiole rudimentary, 0.1-0.2 mm long, ridged.

Can be grown by seedlings.