Moraea ventricosa Baker

Plants 30-45 cm. high.. Corm ± 1.5 cm. diameter, tunics of fine to medium pale straw-coloured fibres.. Cataphylls pale to dark brown, broken and becoming fibrous.. Foliage leaf solitary, exceeding the stem, linear, channelled, 3-7 mm. wide.. Stem unbranched, with 3-6 sheathing leaves, these imbricate, 5-8 cm. long, overlapping the base of the rhipidial spathes.. Rhipidial spathes often entirely green or dry apically, the inner 8-12 cm. long, outer 1/2-2/3 as long as the inner.. Flowers pale yellow to whitish, the outer tepals with pale yellow nectar guides toward the bases of the limbs (blue with white nectar guides in Zairean and some Zambian populations).. Outer tepals lanceolate, 4-5.5 cm. long, the limb usually slightly shorter than the claw, and reflexed; inner tepals erect, strongly spathulate, 3.7-4.4 cm. long.. Filaments 1.2-1.5 cm. long, united in the lower 1/2-2/3; anthers 8-10(-11) mm. long.. Ovary oblong, ± 2 cm. long, included in the spathes (sometimes the base of the perianth also included); the style-branches 1.4-1.7 cm. long, arching outward strongly between the inner tepals, crests ± 1 cm. long.. Capsules broadly ovoid, 2-2.5 cm. long, usually remaining within the spathes.