Moraea unguiculata Ker Gawl.

Plants 150-600 mm high. Corm 10-18 mm diam.; tunics light brown to dark grey, fine to coarse fibres. Stem usually few branched, usually 3 internodes long, bearing green, attenuate sheathing leaves 40-55 mm long. Foliage leaf solitary, basal, linear, up to half again as long as stem, erect below, trailing distally, channelled, glabrous, glaucous-grey, 2-3(-4) mm wide. Rhipidial spathes green, becoming dry and dark brown near tips, attenuate, inner spathe 30-40 mm long, outer ± half as long. Flowers long-lived, white, creamy to dull yellow, brown or deep blue, outer tepal limbs with yellow to brown nectar guides at bases, sometimes speckled brown or purple over surface, half to fully reflexed, inner tepals often darkly speckled; outer tepals lanceolate, 12-20 mm long, claw ± half as long as limb, densely hairy; inner tepals ± erect, 7-12 mm long, usually tricuspidate with long, central, symmetrically incurved cusp and 2 short obtuse lateral lobes (rarely ± linear, filiform or expanded in middle). Filaments 4-6 mm long, united almost to apex; anthers 3-4 mm long, apiculate, usually white. Ovary ± ellipsoid-ovoid, 7-9 mm long; style branches ± 5 mm long, crests 2.5-4.0 mm long. Capsules ± club-shaped, 13-15 mm long. Seeds small, angular.

It is a subtropical plant.