Moraea lurida Ker Gawl.

Plants mostly 250-350 mm high. Corm 10-15 mm diam.; tunics of coarse, often ± woody fibres. Stem usually 2-or 3-branched, branches diverging from the axis, sheathing leaves green with dry, brown attenuate apices, 40-50 mm long. Foliage leaf solitary, basal, linear, channelled, exceeding stem, often trailing distally, 3-5 mm wide. Rhipidial spathes green with dry, brown attenuate apices, inner (35-)40-55(-70) mm long, outer ± 1.2 as long. Flowers long-lived, often dark maroon, or partly yellow, rarely entirely creamy yellow, outer tepal limbs often with a pale spot near base, ± spreading, claws ascending and margins overlapping, forming a deep cup enclosing stamens, foul-smelling; outer tepals 22-30 x 10 mm, claws broad, 13-17 mm long, lightly papillate; inner tepals either entire with limbs short, apiculate or ± 3-lobed, 12-15 mm long, spreading. Filaments 5-6 mm long, united in a smooth column, free and diverging in upper ± 1 mm; anthers 4-6(-8) mm long, brown, apiculate; pollen orange. Ovary ± cylindric, 8-9 mm long; style branches up to 6 x ± 2 mm, crests 2-3 mm long, triangular. Capsules club-shaped, 12-15 mm long. Seeds angular, prismatic.