Moraea speciosa (L.Bolus) Goldblatt

Plants medium to large, 400-700 mm high. Corm globose, 30-40 mm diam.; tunics of hard, dark medium-textured to coarse fibres. Stem several-branched, with green to partly to completely dry sheathing leaves at upper nodes 30-40 mm long. Foliage leaves several, narrowly lanceolate (to ± linear), channelled to ± flat and twisted distally, ± 1/2-2/3 as long as stem, up to 40 mm wide, margins undulate. Rhipidial spathes green, turning pale and membranous later, inner 50-70 mm long, outer ± 2/3 as long. Flowers fugaceous, sometimes half nodding, pale blue-mauve with yellow cup, limbs of inner and outer tepals with yellow to orange nectar guides at bases edged violet, spreading to slightly reflexed, claws diverging, forming a wide cup including filaments; outer tepals 35-45 x 18-25 mm, claws 12-15 mm long, inner ± as long but slightly narrower. Filaments united in a cylindric column finely hairy below, mostly 9-13 mm long; anthers (8-)12-17 mm long, initially contiguous, becoming slightly divergent in upper half, orange or yellow; pollen orange. Ovary ± cylindric, 8-12 mm long, green, sometimes included; style dividing opposite middle of anthers, branches 3-6 mm long, narrowly diverging, not reaching anther tips, without crests. Capsules ± club-shaped, 12-22 mm long, nodding to pendent when mature. Seeds angular, ± 2 mm long.