Pauridia affinis (Schult.F.) Snijman & Kocyan

Plants 5-15(-21) cm tall, often forming clumps. Corm ovoid to turbinate, 7-23 mm diam, covered with several, heavily ribbed, fibrous tunics, cormlets often produced basally, old corms sometimes placed 15 mm below new corm on a scaleless dropper; fibres straight, hard, dark brown, unbranched or rarely with a few fine reticulations near apex, firmly attached to basal rim, basal disc somewhat convex, tips erect, acute; roots spreading irregularly, contractile roots often developing proximally. Cataphylls membranous, 10-20(-50) mm long, whitish, mostly truncate with a short, fleshy tip. Leaves 2-7, shortly sheathing up to 5 mm, suberect to spreading, linear, (21-)30-105(-135) x 1.5-2.0(-3.0) mm, terete to hemiterete, firm, smooth, apex acute, developing a thick, blackish scar when cut. Inflorescences 1 or 2(-5) in flower at a time, 1(2)-flowered, longer to slightly shorter than leaves; scape 10-52(-91) x 1.5-2.0 mm, somewhat compressed adaxially, reddish to reddish green; bracts 1(2), clasping pedicel for up to 3/4 of length, narrowly lanceolate, canaliculate, 11-32 x 2-3 mm, reddish, somewhat leathery, apex acute, slightly spreading, smooth or rarely with a few multicellular teeth on midrib. Flowers pedicellate, stellate, golden yellow, backed with reddish brown on outer tepals except proximally, adaxial surface minutely corrugated near base, unscented; pedicel erect or spreading, deflected sideways when fruiting, 20-70 x ca. 1 mm, reddish; tepals narrowly elliptical, 7-16(-20) mm long, outer 3-5 mm wide, mucronate, inner 2.0-3.5 mm wide. Stamens 6, suberect to spreading, outer slightly shorter than inner, yellow; filaments inserted on ovary rim, outer 1.0-1.5 mm long, inner 2.0 mm long, shorter than anthers; anthers oblong, 3.5-4.0 x 0.5 mm, latrorse, basal lobes 0.5-1.0 mm long, apex emarginate; pollen yellow. Ovary narrowly obconical, 4-8 x 1.5-2.0 mm, 3-locular, usually reddish; style stout, ca. 1.3 mm long; stigma branches suberect, narrowly oblong-triangular, (1-)2-4 x ca. 1.0-1.5 mm, shorter than or rarely equalling stamens, yellow, papillose. Capsules often curved upwards, narrowly obconical, 10-12 x 2.5 mm, walls breaking lengthwise close to septa. Seeds ellipsoid, 0.4-0.6 mm diam.; testa rusty to dark brown or occasionally black, colliculate, epidermal cells arranged in ca. 25 close-set, longitudinal rows, anticlinal cell walls more or less isodiametric, outer periclinal cell walls almost entirely hemispherical. Flowering period: (May-)June-September.