Plant up to 300 mm high, solitary or forming small clumps. Corm 15-18 mm diam.; tunics of coarse, dark brown fibres, often accumulating in a dense mass. Stem sheathed below by dark brown cataphylls, with age forming a collar of ± black, rigid vertical fibres around base, unbranched, enclosed by (2)3(4), ± overlapping sheathing leaves 50-70 mm long, green with dry, brown tips. Foliage leaf absent or emergent at flowering time, ultimately exceeding stem, narrowly channelled with margins tightly folded together, seeming terete but with narrow adaxial groove, ± 2.5-3.5 mm diam. Rhipidial spathes green with dry, brown tips, inner 90-110 mm long, outer ± 3/4 as long. Flowers long-lived, yellow, outer tepal limbs with orange-gold nectar guides at bases, reflexed to ± 40º; outer tepals lanceolate, ± 40-50 x 18-22 mm, claws suberect, ± 2/3 as long as limbs; inner tepals narrowly lanceolate, erect, ± 35 x 10 mm, obtuse to retuse. Filaments up to 8 mm long, united in lower 2/3; anthers 7-9 mm long. Ovary cylindric, ± 10 mm long; style branches ± 7 mm long, crests 10-15 mm long. Capsules cylindric-3-lobed, up to 25 mm long. Seeds unknown.
More
Cormous herb, up to 300 mm tall. Cataphylls of mature plants split regularly into rigid, blackish fibres and innermost cataphyll not forming an open network above. Leaves slender, up to 2.5 mm in diameter. Flowers bright yellow with slightly darker yellow nectar guides, outlined with dark spots on outer tepals.
Home