Moraea pearsonii Goldblatt & J.C.Manning

Plants 200-450 mm high, with collar of fine fibres around base. Corm globose, 20-30 mm diam., deeply buried; tunics of coarse black fibres. Stem erect, usually with 1 to 4 ascending branches, dull purplish where exposed, bearing (1)4 to 6 sessile lateral flower clusters at upper nodes, sheathing leaves dry, attenuate. Foliage leaf solitary, basal, much longer than stem, trailing, partially or entirely dry at flowering, linear, channelled but margins inrolled when dry and appearing terete, 2-3(-4) mm wide, up to 1 m long. Rhipidial spathes dry and papery at flowering, pale buff-coloured or lightly flushed with purple, attenuate, inner 20-33 mm long, outer ± as long. Flowers fugaceous, pale lilac flushed buff-coloured on reverse; inner and outer tepal limbs with small, oblong, yellow nectar guides at bases, unscented, claws erect, clasping filament bases, 1.0-1.5 mm long, limbs spreading or slightly reflexed; outer tepals oblong-elliptic, ± 13 x 4.5-5.0 mm, inner tepals 13 x 4 mm. Filaments free, contiguous at base, 3.5-4.0 mm long, mauve; anthers erect, 4.5-5.0 mm long, yellow, curving inwards distally at anthesis; pollen yellow. Ovary ovoid, 2.5-3.0 mm long; style erect, filiform, mauve, ± 2.5 mm long, branches each divided to base into two filiform arms 3.5-4.0 mm long and spreading to ascending between anthers. Capsules barrel-shaped, 4-5 x 3-4 mm. Seeds angular, ± 1.5 mm diam., red-brown.