Moraea loubseri Goldblatt

Plants 150-200 mm high. Corm ± 10 mm diam.; tunics of pale, fairly coarse fibres. Stem minutely velvety, simple or 1(2)-branched, sheathing leaves green, with dry, brown attenuate apices, 40-50 mm long. Foliage leaf solitary, basal, linear, channelled, hairy outside, exceeding stem and trailing distally. Rhipidial spathes with brown attenuate apices; inner 40-60 mm long, outer ± 2/3 as long. Flowers long-lived, blue-violet, outer tepal claws and proximal 1/3 of limbs densely covered with blue-black hairs, limbs laxly spreading to half reflexed; outer tepals 24-30 mm long, limbs 14-20 x 12-18 mm, claws broad, ± 10 mm long; inner tepals 3-lobed, 15-20 mm long, lateral lobes short, obtuse, central lobe linear-acuminate, ± 12 mm long, spreading to slightly reflexed. Filaments ± 4 mm long, united in lower ± 3 mm, free and diverging distally; anthers 5 mm long, violet; pollen orange. Ovary narrowly ovoid-cylindric, 8-10 mm long; style branches ± 6 mm long, ± horizontal, crests 8-10 mm long, wedge-shaped, spreading. Capsules ± club-shaped, 18-20 mm long. Seeds angular, testa inflated.