Moraea radians (Goldblatt) Goldblatt

Plants 90-350 mm high. Corm 9-15 mm diam.; tunics of coarse, black, netted fibres. Stem with elongate basal internode, flexed above sheath of foliage leaf, usually 2-or 3-branched, sheathing leaves with brown attenuate tips, 20-35 mm long. Foliage leaf solitary, inserted 25-80 mm above ground, exceeding stem, arching outward, channelled, 2-5 mm wide. Rhipidial spathes attenuate, with dry brown tips, inner 30-50 mm long, outer ± half as long. Flowers fugaceous, beige-yellow, limbs of all tepals deep yellow at bases, spreading, tepal claws suberect, forming a small narrow cup ± 3 mm deep enclosing filaments; outer tepals obovate, 26-30 x 17 mm, claws 3-4 mm long; inner tepals 24-27 x ± 15 mm. Filaments free, ± 4 mm long, minutely papillate; anthers initially straight, suberect, ± 5 mm long, exceeding style branches, curving inward over style branches after anthesis, yellow; pollen yellow. Ovary ± cylindric, ± 10 mm long; style ± 1 mm long, branches diverging, ± 3 mm long, flattened and divided for half their length, stigmatic at tips of lobes, without crests. Capsules oblong-cylindric, 12-15 mm long. Seeds angular.