Moraea elsiae Goldblatt

Plants 20-40 mm high. Corm mostly 20-35 mm diam.; tunics brown, ± woody or becoming fibrous, sticky-bituminous on inner surfaces, persisting with cataphylls as a collar around base. Stem with up to 3 branches at most aerial nodes, viscous below nodes, with cauline sheathing leaves, ± obtuse to truncate. Foliage leaves 2, linear, channelled, falcate to trailing, 3-5 mm wide. Rhipidial spathes green, dry above, usually ± obtuse, often becoming lacerated, inner 19-30 mm long, outer slightly shorter. Flowers fugaceous, yellow, rarely white, flushed brown outside, with darker yellow nectar guide specked with black at bases of all tepal limbs, limbs reflexed to ± 45º; outer tepals 15-22 x 5-9 mm, claws ± 5.5 mm long, inner slightly smaller, 14-19 x 4 mm. Filaments 4-7 mm long, free but parallel and contiguous below, diverging near apices; anthers 2.5-4.0 mm long, yellow; pollen yellow. Ovary 5-6 mm long, ovoid; style branches 3-4 mm long, overtopped by anthers, bilobed, crests vestigial, shorter than stigma lobes. Capsules ovoid, up to 10 mm long. Seeds unknown.