Moraea elegans Jacq.

Plants 150-300 mm high. Corm 10-12 mm diam.; tunics of coarse wiry, black fibres. Stem few-to several-branched, bearing attenuate sheathing leaves 50-70 mm long. Foliage leaf solitary, inserted at or near ground level, linear, channelled, longer than stem, erect or trailing distally, 7-10 mm wide. Rhipidial spathes attenuate, inner 70-100 mm long, later elongating to enclose developing capsules, outer initially ± 1/2 as long as outer. Flowers long-lived, predominantly yellow with large green blotch in middle or upper 1/3 of outer tepals and usually orange distally, tepals spreading ± horizontally from base, weakly differentiated into claw and limb, strongly and sweetly scented; outer tepals 28-35 mm long, oblong or ovate, claws narrow, 13-15 mm wide, widest in lower 1/3; inner tepals 26-38 mm long, ± as long or slightly longer than outer, 10-11 mm wide. Filaments 5-7 mm long, united in a column tapering from wider base, pubescent in lower 1/3 or 1/4; anthers 8-10 mm long, diverging, exceeding style branches, apices curving inward after dehiscence, yellow; pollen yellow. Ovary ± cylindric, 12-15 mm long, usually included; style branches diverging, ± 6 mm long, shorter than anthers, stigma lobe erect, appressed to anthers, crests 1-2 mm long, directed inward. Capsules cylindric, 20-25 mm long, included. Seeds angular.