Moraea britteniae (L.Bolus) Goldblatt

Plants 200-450 mm high. Corm 10-15 mm diam.; tunics of coarse, black fibres. Stem straight, usually branched, branches ascending, held close to axis, sheathing leaves 60-80 mm long, attenuate. Foliage leaf solitary, basal, often sheathing lower part of stem, longer than stem, erect or trailing distally, channelled, 6-9 mm wide, dark green. Rhipidial spathes attenuate, inner initially 60-80 mm long, elongating with age to enclose developing capsules, outer 40-60 mm long. Flowers fugaceous, creamy white to pale yellow, tepal limbs with deep yellow nectar guides at bases spotted with green, spreading horizontally, twisted distally, tepal claws suberect, forming a narrow tube enclosing filament column; outer tepals narrowly obovate to pandurate, 26-35 x 8-13 mm, claws 8-9 mm long, suberect; inner tepals smaller, 21-35 x 6-10 mm. Filaments 7-8 mm long, united below in a smooth, cylindric column, free in upper 0.5-1.5 mm (or virtually united entirely); anthers 6-7 mm, shortly exceeding stigma lobes, white; pollen white. Ovary cylindric, 15-24 mm long; style branches diverging and curved upward, 4-6 mm long, stigma bilobed, broad, receptive laterally, crests short, horizontal, ± 2 mm long. Capsules cylindric, (18-)25-45 mm long. Seeds angular.