Moraea villosa Ker Gawl. ex Rchb.

Plants 200-400 mm high. Corm 10-15 mm diam.; tunics with inner layers of fine and outer layers of pale, coarse, almost woody fibres. Stem simple or 1-or 2-branched, velvety, sheathing leaves with dry, brown, attenuate apices, 30-50 mm long. Foliage leaf solitary, linear, basal, velvety-hairy on abaxial surface, occasionally on margins only (rarely glabrous), exceeding stem, often bent and trailing distally. Rhipidial spathes with dry, brown attenuate apices; inner 40-60 mm long, outer ± 2/3 as long. Flowers long-lived, shades of purple, lilac, pink or occasionally creamy green (subsp. villosa), or orange to peach (subsp. elandsmontana), outer tepal limbs with prominent dark purple, turquoise green or navy blue nectar guides at bases, sometimes edged with yellow, claws covered with orange, yellow or purple-brown hairs (rarely inner tepals with small nectar guide); outer tepals 28-40 mm long, limbs 22-38 x 20-35 mm, claws 8-12 mm long, diverging, limbs orbicular, ± as wide as long, spreading slightly below or above horizontal; inner tepals 16-30 mm long, tricuspidate with lateral lobes short, rounded, obtuse, central lobe ± linear, long, ± outspread. Filaments 4-5 mm long, united in a cylindric column, free near apices; anthers 6-10 mm long, occasionally exceeding stigma lobe, mauve; pollen orange or yellow. Ovary ± cylindric, 7-10 mm long, green or dull red; style branches 5-7 mm long, arching over outer tepal claws, crests (3-)5-8 mm long. Capsules ± cylindric, 20-30 mm long. Seeds angled with spongy testa.