Moraea comptonii (L.Bolus) Goldblatt

Plants 180-300 mm high. Corm 10-15 mm diam.; tunics of coarse, black fibres. Stem usually several-branched, bearing attenuate sheathing leaves 40-60 mm long. Foliage leaf solitary, inserted at or near ground level, linear, channelled, exceeding stem, often trailing distally, 3-7 mm wide. Rhipidial spathes attenuate, inner 70-100 mm long at flowering, much elongating after flowering and enclosing developing capsules, outer initially ± 1/2 as long as inner. Flowers long-lived, yellow or pink to orange with yellow centre, sometimes with large dark green blotches on outer or both tepal whorls, tepals weakly divided into claws in lower half, but lower halves forming an open cup and upper halves ± spreading, heavily and sweetly scented; outer tepals 32-52 x 13-18 mm long, often pandurate or spathulate, widest in upper 1/3; inner tepals 30-50 x 8-15 mm. Filaments united in a column tapering from wider base, 6-8 mm long, pubescent in lower 2/3; anthers (8-)10-13 mm long, diverging, usually shorter than style branches, occasionally reaching or exceeding stigma lobes, yellow; pollen yellow. Ovary ± cylindric, ± 18 mm long, included or half exserted; style branches diverging, 6-10 mm long, crests erect to incurved, ± 1 mm long. Capsules initially cylindric, 25-30 mm long, included. Seeds angular.