Moraea polyanthos L.F.

Plants mostly 150-450 mm high. Corm 10-15 mm diam.; tunics of hard, dark brown to black fibres. Stem several-branched, with attenuate sheathing leaves dry at tips, mostly 35-45 mm long. Foliage leaves usually 3 or 4, rarely only 2, linear, channelled, lowermost ± basal, usually exceeding stem, trailing distally, upper leaves shorter, 2-6 mm wide. Rhipidial spathes often becoming dry and brown above, attenuate; inner 33-45 mm long, outer ± 1/2 as long. Flowers fugaceous, blue to blue-mauve or white, scented of burned vanilla or unscented, all tepal limbs with small to yellow to orange nectar guides at bases sometimes edged white, spreading ± horizontally, claws diverging to form a cup including filaments and sometimes anthers; tepals lanceolate, outer 23-40 x 8-10 mm long, claws 10-12 mm long; inner smaller, 20-35 x 6-9 mm. Filaments united in a smooth, slender column (5-)6-9 mm long; anthers 4-7 mm long, pale mauve or white; pollen usually white. Ovary narrowly obovoid, 5-7 mm long, usually partly exserted at flowering; style branches 4-5 mm long, ± as wide as anthers, bilobed at tips, without crests. Capsules ellipsoid-obovoid, 7-11 mm long. Seeds angular.