Moraea modesta Killick

Plants small, mostly 100-200 mm high, with fibrous collar around base. Corm ± 10 mm diam.; tunics of very fine, light brown fibres. Stem slender, rarely branched, mostly with 2(3) aerial internodes, sheathing leaves with dry, brown attenuate apices, 40-50 mm long. Foliage leaf solitary, basal, usually dry at flowering or absent, new leaf sometimes emergent, ultimately exceeding stem, evidently terete but with narrow adaxial groove. Rhipidial spathes with dry brown apices, inner 30-50 mm long, outer ± 2/3 as long. Flowers long-lived, white to pale mauve, veined with purple, style branches and crests dark purple, outer tepal limbs with small, pale yellow nectar guides at bases, spreading; outer tepals 20-27 x 12-15 mm, limbs 12-15 mm long; inner tepals minute, 5-6 mm long, linear or trifid with inner cusp ± 1 mm long. Filaments 3-6 mm long, usually united for ± half their length, rarely ± free to base or free only in upper ± 0.5 mm; anthers ± 6 mm long. Ovary ± cylindric, 7-8 mm long, style branches ± 7 mm long, narrow, crests linear, ± 6 mm long. Capsules obovoid-ellipsoid, 10-12 mm long. Seeds angular.