Lapeirousia anceps Ker Gawl.

Plants 100-300 mm high. Corm bell-shaped, red-brown, 8-10 mm diam.; tunics lightly ridged, rim bluntly lobed. Stem usually repeatedly divaricately branched, compressed and elliptic in cross section, 2-or 3-angled, angles slightly winged, wings weakly serrated. Leaves 5 to 7, lowermost usually longer and wider than others, (40-)80-200 x 3-15 mm, ascending to falcate, lanceolate, ribbed, remaining leaves shorter, mostly crowded near base, becoming increasingly bract-like above. Inflorescences (2)4-to 8-flowered spikes, at first 2-ranked, ultimately spiral; outer bracts grey-green, (5-)6-10 mm long, apices and margins often tinged red, channelled, folded along upper midline, acute in profile; inner 3-5 mm long, transparent with two green keels. Flowers zygomorphic, white to beige or faintly flushed pink, reverse of tepals and tube pink, lower 3 tepals each with red mark in lower midline, and usually with small, claw-like cusp near base; perianth tube narrow and cylindric, weakly arched distally, (20-)40-80 mm long (3-6 times as long as tepals); tepals narrowly lanceolate to ± linear, acute, dorsal largest, 12-14 x 4-5 mm, erect or recurved when fully open, upper lateral 12-14 x ± 3 mm, widely separated from dorsal, lower tepals united basally for 2-3 mm, free parts 12-14 mm long, extended horizontally. Stamens unilateral, ± erect; filaments ± 6 mm long, exserted ± 4 mm from tube; anthers parallel, ± 2.5 mm long; pollen grey-blue or white. Style arching adaxial to anthers, dividing between base and middle of anthers; branches 2-3 mm long, divided for 1/2 their length and recurved. Capsules ± barrel-shaped, 9-10 x ± 7 mm. Seeds red-brown, globose, smooth, somewhat flattened at chalazal end, ± 1.5 mm diam.

It is a subtropical plant. It grows in deep sands.

The corm or bulb is eaten as a snack and also cooked as a vegetable.