Moraea marginata J.C.Manning & Goldblatt

Plants 100-150 mm high. Corm globose, 15-20 mm diam.; tunics of coarse black fibres. Stem usually 1-to 4-branched at upper nodes, dull purplish where exposed, with 3 or 4 sheathing leaves ± dry and papery at flowering, imbricate, attenuate. Foliage leaf solitary, basal, longer than stem, trailing and slightly twisted and coiled, firm-textured, grey-green, ± dry at flowering, linear, channelled, 20-25 x 5-7 mm, margins conspicuously thickened, cartilaginous. Rhipidial spathes becoming dry above, inner 25-30 mm long, outer ± 1/2 as long. Flowers fugaceous, blue-violet, all tepal limbs with small, oblong, yellow nectar guides at bases, unscented; tepals oblanceolate, shortly clawed, claws erect, 1.0-1.5 mm long, clasping base of filaments, limbs spreading or slightly reflexed, inner twisted slightly counter-clockwise distally; outer 10-13 x 3.5-4.0 mm, inner 9-12 x 2.5-3.0 mm. Stamens free, filaments contiguous at base, 4-5 mm long, suberect, mauve; anthers erect, 4.5-5.0 mm long, yellow, curving inwards above at anthesis. Ovary narrowly ellipsoid, 4 mm long; style branches filiform, 4 mm long, spreading to ascending, emerging between anthers, mauve. Capsules barrel-shaped, 6-8 x 5 mm. Seeds subglobose or angled by pressure, ± 2 mm diam., reddish brown, testa surface rugulose.