Moraea variabilis (G.J.Lewis) Goldblatt

Plants acaulescent, up to 40 mm high. Corm ± globose, 10-15 mm diam.; tunics of dark brown, netted fibres arranged in herringbone pattern, vertical ribs often thick and woody, often accumulating in a dense mass. Stem underground at flowering. Leaves in a basal tuft, ± straight, spreading, lowermost often ± prostrate, oblong to lanceolate, channelled to flat, 30-50 x ± 6 mm, margins ± straight, minutely ciliate. Rhipidial spathes hardly distinct from leaves, with up to 5 flowers per plant. Flowers fugaceous, salver-shaped with tepals cupped in lower halves, usually dark pink-purple with yellow cup and darkly pigmented at edge of cup; perianth tube cylindric, 12-30 mm long; tepals subequal, spreading distally, obovate, 20-35 x 10-13 mm. Filaments ± 6 mm long, united in smooth, straight column, rarely free in distal ± 1 mm, usually yellow; anthers sessile (or nearly so), ± erect, 3-4 mm long before splitting, yellow or purple; pollen yellow. Ovary oblong-cylindric, ± 4 mm long; style straight, dividing above anther tips into 3 short, spreading stigmatic lobes, margins undulate. Capsules and seeds unknown.