Pauridia longituba M.F.Thomps.

Plants 1.5-6.5 cm tall. Corm somewhat globose, 6-7 mm diam., covered with reticulate, brown fibrous tunics; fibres attached to basal disc, acute distally; roots slender, arising mainly near corm base. Cataphylls membranous, up to ca. 22 mm long. Leaves 3-9, sheathing at base up to 38 mm, suberect to spreading, linear, 3.5-11.5 x 0.1 cm, canaliculate, margin entire. Inflorescences up to ca. 6 in flower at a time, 1-flowered, shorter than leaves; scape subterranean, hidden amongst leaf bases; bracts 2, clasping ovary base, filamentous, ca. 10 x 0.5 mm, membranous. Flower sessile or minutely pedicellate, tubular-funnelform, white, backs tipped with green or reddish green in outer whorl, slightly acrid-scented; pedicel 0-2 mm long; perigone tube 8-30 mm long, narrowly cylindric for most of length, flaring distally to 2.5-4.0 mm below tepals, tepals 6, spreading, ovate-lanceolate, ca.1/3-1/2 as long as tube, 4-10 mm long, outer 2-3 mm wide, minutely mucronate, inner 1.7-2.5 mm wide. Stamens 3, suberect; filaments inserted in throat below inner teplas, 0.4-1.5 mm long, shorter than anthers; anthers oblong, latrorse, 1.5-2.7 mm long, basal lobes up to 0.5 mm long, apex sometimes deeply notched, yellow. Ovary ovoid, ca. 2.5 x 2.0 mm, 3-locular; style slender, ca. as long as perigone tube; stigma branches 3, erect, linear, 2-6 mm long, slightly exceeding stamens, white, margin minutely papillose, bearing a short, downturned lobe at each branch cleft. Capsule ovoid, ca. 3.5 x 2.5 mm, walls moulded over seeds, disintegrating irregularly. Seeds globose, ca. 0.45 mm diam.; testa shiny black to brownish, covered with rounded elevations in close-set, longitudinal rows, outer periclinal walls almost hemispherical, with a flat rim. Flowering period: May-early-June.