Moraea minor Eckl.

Plants 100-300 mm high. Corm 10-12 mm diam.; tunics of wiry, black fibres. Stem 1-to 3-branched, flexed above leaf insertion and at upper nodes, main axis of only 2 internodes above leaf, lowermost node bearing a sheathing leaf (sometimes with a short lamina). Foliage leaf solitary, inserted well above ground, linear, channelled, exceeding stem, 4-8 mm wide. Rhipidial spathes attenuate, inner initially ± 50 mm long with the outer ± 2/3 as long, inner usually much elongating in fruit enclosing developing capsules, up to 80 mm long. Flowers fugaceous, usually dark pink with yellow nectar guides at bases of tepal limbs outlined in green, occasionally yellow, tepal claws forming a narrow cup including stamens and style branches, limbs spreading; outer tepals 22-38 x 9-16 mm, obovate; inner tepals 20-36 x 8-14 mm, often twisted. Filaments united in a cylindric column 6-9 mm, minutely pubescent in lower half; anthers erect 3-6 mm long, diverging in upper half. Ovary 9-15 mm long, enclosed in spathes; style branching opposite middle of anthers; branches erect, barely diverging, 2-3 mm long, usually reaching apex of anthers, or shorter, stigma lobe curved over anther tips, with short, erect crests < 1 mm long. Capsules cylindric, 25-28 mm long, without beak, enclosed in spathes during ripening.