Pauridia monophylla (schltr. ex Baker) Snijman & Kocyan

Plants 3.5-8.0 cm tall. Corm somewhat ovoid, 6-14 mm diam., covered with fibrous tunics; fibres fine, pale brown to cream when dry, usually remaining attached to corm base, finely pectinate proximally, converging to subacute tips distally, old corms shriveled, placed laterally; roots spreading from proximal half. Cataphylls membranous, truncate, up to 25 mm long, usually subterranean. Leaves often absent at flowering, 1(2), suberect to outspread, linear, 30-80 x 1.5-2.0 mm, canaliculate, dark green, firm, adaxial surface with a broad, ca. 6-layered, subepidermal band of colourless, thin-walled cells, margin entire. Inflorescences 1 or 2(-4) in flower at a time, 1-flowered, shorter to longer than leaves; scape hidden below ground or slightly exserted, up to 14 x 0.5 mm, terete, white; bract 1, often partially subterranean, partially sheathing pedicel for most of length, lanceolate, 14-30 mm long, becoming reddish green and leathery when exposed, margin hyaline, apex attenuate. Flower pedicellate, stellate, pale yellow, sometimes backed with a reddish brown median stripe in outer whorl, backs flushed reddish brown when old, unscented; pedicel erect, 15-75 x ca. 1 mm, subterete, pale green to reddish brown; tepals 6, oblong-lanceolate, 10-28 mm long, outer 3.7-6.5 mm wide, minutely mucronate, inner 1.5-4.0 mm wide. Stamens 6, erect, occluding narrow throat, outer shorter than inner, yellow; filaments outer 0.5-1.0 mm long, inner 1.2-1.5 mm long, all shorter than anthers; anthers oblong to triangular, deeply notched at apex, introrse, 2.5-3.5 x 0.6-1.0 mm, basal lobes blunt or up to 0.5 mm long, apical lobes acute, up to 0.6 mm long, anther connective convex and thickened dorsally; pollen yellow. Ovary shortly obconical, 2.5-3.0 x 2-3 mm, 3-locular; style 0.5 mm long; stigma branches erect, somewhat narrowly oblong, ca. 0.5-1.0 x 0.5 mm, shorter than stamens, yellow, adaxial surface and margin papillose. Capsule shallowly cup-shaped, ca. as broad as long, 2.5-3.0 x 3.0 mm, with firm walls, dehiscence circumscissile. Seeds somewhat spheroidal, ca. 0.56 x 0.50 mm; testa shiny black, of isodiametric cells in a close-set, irregular arrangement, outer periclinal cell walls prominently colliculate. Flowering period: (early January-)late-February-April(-late May).