Moraea melanops Goldblatt & J.C.Manning

Plants acaulescent, up to 40 mm high. Corm globose, asymmetric below, 10-15 mm diam.; tunics of cartilaginous layers, with age decaying into fibres arranged in herringbone pattern, or with hard vertical claw-like ribs separated by fine cross fibres, accumulating in a dense mass around base. Stem underground at flowering. Leaves several, lowermost inserted below ground shortly above corm, others in a basal cluster, ± prostrate, obovate to lanceolate, shallowly channelled, 20-35 x 10-14 mm, slightly undulate, margins occasionally crisped. Rhipidial spathes not distinct from leaves; with 2 to 5 flowers per plant. Flowers fugaceous, ± salver-shaped with tepals shallowly cupped, light to dark purple, dark purple-black at bases; perianth tube cylindric, 18-27 mm long; tepals subequal, laxly spreading, obovate, ± 16 x 9-10 mm. Filaments ± 3 mm long, free or united in lower half, initially erect and contiguous, later diverging, yellow; anthers ± 3 mm long, purple; pollen yellow. Ovary oblong-cylindric, ± 4 mm long; style straight, reaching ± 1 mm beyond anther tips, dividing into three short lobes, initially upright and appressed to one another, later spreading and lying just above anthers. Capsules and seeds unknown.