Lapeirousia oreogena Schltr. ex Goldblatt

Plants forming dense tufts at ground level, 50-100 mm high, including flowers. Corm bell-shaped, ± 10 mm diam.; tunics light brown, surface lightly wrinkled. Stem subterranean, upper internodes contracted. Foliage leaves usually solitary, linear, straight, ribbed, 120-200 mm long. Inflorescence several-to many-flowered, congested in head-like tuft; outer bracts 30-60 mm long, bifacial and channelled throughout, usually ± falcate, often twisted, margins undulate and crisped, inner up to 1/2 as long, margins often plane. Flowers actinomorphic, salverform, dark blue-violet, almost black in centre with white triangular to arrowhead markings close to tepal bases; perianth tube erect, cylindric, 50-60 mm long; tepals subequal, 12-14 mm long, lanceolate, acute, spreading but becoming slightly deflexed with age. Stamens symmetrically disposed around style, erect; filaments exserted ± 3 mm; anthers erect, contiguous around style, ± 3.5 mm long. Style erect, usually dividing opposite middle 1/3 of anthers; style branches ± 2.5 mm long, deeply forked and recurved. Capsules ovoid to oblong, 7-10 mm long, without locular ridges. Seeds globose, ± 2 mm diam., red-brown, reticulately sculptured.